uns and Stiff Upper Lips (From the Wash Times)
Washington Times
EDITORIAL . August 20, 2001

Guns and stiff upper lips

If a total, nationwide ban on the possession of firearms is supposed to
curb gun crime, then why is it that the English are increasingly the victims
of gun-wielding criminals? According to a study released about a month ago
and which formed the basis of a recent article in USA Today, the criminal
use of firearms in the United Kingdom has increased by “almost 40 percent in
three years, to 3,685 incidents from 2,648.”
Now, what makes this fact especially interesting is that three years
ago was precisely when England passed a comprehensive ban on the private
possession of handguns. According to the logic of gun control advocates,
there should have been less, not more (let alone much more) gun crime.
Residents of the District are equally familiar with this curious
relationship. A total, nationwide ban on the possession of firearms has not
kept guns out of the hands of criminals.
As the study by the Centre for Defense Studies at King’s College
reveals, all that has been accomplished by the British gun ban is the
disarming of people who obey laws. “It is crystal clear,” the study’s
authors concluded, “that legally held firearms are not the problem, and that
the existing gun laws do not lead to crime reduction. . .” A British
gun-control group, the Gun Control Network, emotionally responded with the
predictable mantra that “It is clear to the vast majority of British
citizens that any relaxation of gun controls, or the routine arming of the
police, would lead to an increase in the use of guns in crime.”
But the time has come to insist on more than emotional, gratuitous
assertions. It is, for example, historically incontrovertible that gun
violence in this country only became a problem relatively recently,
irrespective of the fact that firearms have been common items in American
households since the colonial era. It was not so very long ago that most
high schools had shooting clubs – yet school shootings were unknown.
Teen-age Boy Scouts practiced marksmanship – on targets, and without harming
themselves or anyone else.
How do gun control groups account for all of this? They don’t. Facts
and evidence that contradict their sloganeering are simply ignored,
dismissed, or swept under the rug. As, in all likelihood, will happen to the
King’s College study. The same has already happened repeatedly to the
multiple, excellent and thoroughly researched works of Yale professor John
R. Lott.
Meanwhile, gun control groups both here and abroad will continue to
push for the disarming of law-abiding citizens – with the practical effect
that they are at the mercy of well-armed criminals. This is disgraceful and
unconscionable – and can no longer go unchallenged.

Original Article:
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20010820-528396.htm