low4ell asked this question on 5/13/2000:
I am doing a study comparing UK and US crime. do you know how I could find out the UK per capita murder rate, general violent crime problem in UK compared to US, approx ownership of guns in Uk, laws about gun ownership in the UK? number of persons in UK prisons per capita? There is this debate about gun control in the US and how there is suppose to be less crime in the UK since there are not as many guns? some say it is changing because guns are being used more in the UK. Any comments to help me?
stevewalters gave this response on 5/14/2000:
UK gun ownership is totally illegal, except for farmers and pest controllers who are permitted to own single or double barrel shotguns, for dealing with vermin.
Gun crime in the UK is very low, since the number of firearms available to the general population is minimal. We do have some gangs, such as the Yardies etc who do possess guns illegaly, but we in the UK have a much lower rate of armed crime than most countries in the world, hence the fact that most of our police officers are unarmed.
Although this tends to indicate that gun controls work, and I would agree that removing the source of guns for criminals, those stolen in burglaries etc, it isn't always the case.
In Switzerland most males over the age of 18 own a rifle, since the entire male population between certain age ranges is actually a member of the Swiss Army, and are called up every so often for military service. Since people know that every house has a gun in it, and the people in those houses are trained to kill, I believe armed crime is virtually unheard of.
My personal belief, having lived in the USA for a while, is that whilst gun control would be of great help to the USA, it will never be possible until someone decides to go into a school and kill everyone, after first writing a letter saying they were doing it because they want to. Otherwise powerful lobby groups like the NRA will argue other causes were responsible, like watching the TV or videos. To control guns would take the combined effort of the ATF, Army, and all law enforcement agencies, since you would have to carry out raids on every home in the USA at virtually the same time.
stevewalters gave this follow-up answer on 5/15/2000:
Certainly gun crime is increasing in the UK, and at, for us, an alarming rate. Recently in a city near myself there have been 8 shootings in a 2 week period. However, there were none that I know of for a few months prior to that.
Gun crimes are increasing here, however it is normally either drug related , or accidental in drug related situations. Personally, in the 8 years I served as a police officer I only attended 2 firearms incidents, one drug related, one an armed robbery. If you compare that with the average american officer, I'm sure that the figure would be higher. The only area where their is a real firearms problem, or rather was, was northern ireland, with the terrorist organisations on both sides of the sectarian divide, both unionist and republican. However since the ceasefires took place over a year ago, it has been a much safer place.
Certainly gun crime in the UK is increasing, but it can never escalate too much, since firearms need to be smuggled into the country. We always have had some gun related crime in the UK, however most people in the UK would be more afraid of knives being used in crime, as opposed to guns. Also there are no incidents, or rather very few, of members of the public using firearms in family criem, or self defence. I can think of one case in the last few years where a criminal was fatally shot by a house owner, who is now serving time for murder. Gun accidents are rarely heard of.
Whilst Dunblane was a terrible tragedy, it was a rare event. Their have been more school children killed in the USA with firearms (including accidents and criminal action) in the last twelve months per capita, than there have been in the UK in at least the previous century.
Hope this is some help, and I will try to find out some more info for you.
The average rating for this answer is 4.6.
low4ell rated this answer a 5.
Thanks for taking the time to give me a thoughtful and complete answer. I still hear by the gun contol people in the US that gun crime is going up in the UK. Is this true? If so, at what rate? And how does it compare to the gun violence in the US. I would suggest that is quite low but my gun freak friends would rather think that things are getting out of hand the UK. Do you have any facts at hand. It would be interesting to see the contrast.