water cannon

[Hood]

I'm quite happy living without guns. If the stuff hit the fan I'd much rather that my neighbour has to come and whack me in the face than shoot my head off from across the street. If other countries want to allow guns that's fine, but that doesn't give them the right to criticise the UK, just as it doesn't give us in the UK the right to criticise the internal policies of other sovereign nations (and I'm talking specifically about gun law here, not frolics into Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya etc etc etc).

As for the argument about guns = crime well who knows. You're better off looking at the type of people who will use guns for crime. Anybody can flip and go on a killing rampage. If you equate the law that guns are not allowed in the UK with the recent riots, then that's plain ignorance. I really can't see an ordinary person (or fact an armed policeman or soldier) in the UK starting to indiscriminately shoot at rioters, and allowing guns would in my opinion simply escalate the fear and death.

And as for Stern's post about how the UK founded an Empire based on guns etc, that's also a teensy bit wrong too. In fact it was based on leadership and force of will, and the leaders were b&stards. The number of professional soldiers involved was small as most of the controlling forces in any territory were local levies. And of course a nations peoples move on from their past.

Don't be too sure about the character of British reserve as it's a veneer - we may not allow guns but scratch us a little bit and we'll bite your face off.

Hood