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Originally posted by: JediSageYoda: What's the violent crime rate in UK now that almost all guns have been outlawed? The REAL rate, not the ones Labour was throwing around during the election...I'm genuinely curious, as I hear some pretty horrid stories. Do you feel that the criminals are more bold now?
Well, as far as I know guns were never legal in recent history in the UK, certainly not in the last 60 years, but in answer to your question, gun crime in England seems to be on the up. It's mostly gangs or drug dealers killing each other rather than innocent people on the street, and gun crime is still very low compared to other crime and other countries, but I have noticed an upward trend. However, I am not scared to walk unarmed in my home city of London, but I am a little worried in L.A (where my wife comes from and we visit often and are moving there in autumn). In England I have never known anyone, not even a friend of a friend of a friend who has been the victim of gun crime but in L.A I have many friends who either have been threatened at gunpoint or know someone who has been shot, etc. So, this is a really tough problem, and I see both arguments I guess, but personally I don't think more guns is the answer. I don't know what is though, unless somebody invents some kind of machine that makes every gun in the world evaporate and the knowledge and desire to build them vanish also.