The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - My take on why gun-restriction works in Europe but not in the US

HarrySchell · August 19, 2011, 03:03 PM

Joyce Lee Malcolm has written about this extensively, but the facts are that the UK has the highest per-capita violent crime rates in the "developed world" (UN data) since 1993.

One cannot separate the prospects of acting in self-defense and being jailed for it, but the UK has done all it can to deny the means to the law-abiding for self-defense, with firearms, handguns particularly, being just part of the banned items. Yet, as elsewhere in Europe, gun crime is accelerating and guns are freely available to criminals. And they on an island.

Fixing the moral and ethical environment is just part of the problem. Depriving anyone of the effective means of self-defense abrogates their right as a human being to live other than by tooth and claw.

No sir, the European gun controls don't "work", except to makes criminality a safer profession. the "shall issue" experience in the US affirms this.

The question is not whether crime levels are tolerable, or less here than there. The question is how low can crime rates be driven. The law-abiding are not the problem. Stop treating them as if they are.

August 19, 2011, 03:03 PM	#21
HarrySchell Senior Member Join Date: March 30, 2007 Location: South CA Posts: 566	Joyce Lee Malcolm has written about this extensively, but the facts are that the UK has the highest per-capita violent crime rates in the "developed world" (UN data) since 1993. One cannot separate the prospects of acting in self-defense and being jailed for it, but the UK has done all it can to deny the means to the law-abiding for self-defense, with firearms, handguns particularly, being just part of the banned items. Yet, as elsewhere in Europe, gun crime is accelerating and guns are freely available to criminals. And they on an island. Fixing the moral and ethical environment is just part of the problem. Depriving anyone of the effective means of self-defense abrogates their right as a human being to live other than by tooth and claw. No sir, the European gun controls don't "work", except to makes criminality a safer profession. the "shall issue" experience in the US affirms this. The question is not whether crime levels are tolerable, or less here than there. The question is how low can crime rates be driven. The law-abiding are not the problem. Stop treating them as if they are. __________________ Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world — and never will. — Mark Twain