Guns under pillows in crime-wave Britain

http://www.reuters.co.uk/news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=744693

LONDON (Reuters) – Thousands of worried Britons are sharing their beds with
a gun and nearly half of them are prepared to kill with it, according to a
survey.

“Guns feature alongside baseball bats and hammers among the arsenal kept by
almost one in 10 worried householders,” security firm Micromark said on
Tuesday, citing a telephone survey of 1,000 people.

The company said eight percent of those sleeping next to a weapon had a
gun, equating to about 100,000 homes.

But a Home Office spokeswoman said barring special licenses for certain
handguns and shotguns, there were only 125,000 licensed firearms altogether
in England and Wales.

Crime has become a hot topic in Britain, with street crime up 40 percent in
January alone and controversy mounting over a government plan for the early
release of non-violent prisoners.

Women were the keenest to resort to firearms, while 44 percent of people
opting to sleep with a weapon chose a blunt instrument such as a baseball
bat.

“Ten percent of the women who keep a weapon choose a gun, compared to six
percent of men,” a Micromark spokesman told Reuters, adding that the number
of people sleeping with guns was rising.

“Sixty percent of respondents believe people have the right to take the law
into their own hands…and nearly half would be prepared to kill in order
to protect their family,” the firm said.

“These are worrying signals of a public which perceives domestic crime as
spiralling out of control,” said Martin Burrekoven-Kalvea of the National
Neighbourhood Watch Association.

British law does not support the view that an Englishman’s home is his
castle. Norfolk farmer Tony Martin is serving five years in jail for
shooting dead a teenage burglar in his home.

He is just one of many who have taken up arms to protect their homes,
according to the poll, which found that gun ownership was 10 times higher
in the country than in the city.