Dunblane Massacre Resource Page

"These [common law] rights consist, primarily, in the free enjoyment of personal security, of personal liberty and of private property…to vindicate these rights when actually violated or attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances and lastly, to the right of having and using arms for self preservation and defence."

"Commentaries on the Laws of England"
Lord Justice William Blackstone

(Don't worry everyone, that's not in any Bill of Rights - well, not one that counts, anyhow.)

I started this page with the intention of building a resource of documents and links that came to my notice and that relate to the Dunblane Massacre, the Inquiry by Lord Cullen (which see for details of the events at Dunblane on 13 March 1996) that was held in Stirling, and the individual, public, political and legislative responses to these events. As that event fades into the past the page begins to address more contemporary events, as befits a web document. However, I still see the Dunblane Massacre and the public and "official" responses to it as a defining event in British public and political life so the page title stands.

Anyone with suitable contributions or questions, pro- or anti-, email me.

Note: opinions expressed here are my own. I represent no body or organisation other than myself. Any other personal, or group, opinions represented on these pages are attributed where applicable and do not necessarily represent views endorsed by me.
readme.1st

Johnny <johnny@dvc.org.uk>
Revised: Sat 26 Oct 2013

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News/Articles

2013

Mail Online: Playground gun law: In a grim portrait of modern Britain, rifle-toting police mix with children on estate plagued by gang shootings, 2013-05-15
Armed patrols (with H&K G36C carbines and pistols) for "foreseeable future."
How's that total victim disarmament working out…
Storyleak: Fact: Even Gandhi Opposed Gun Bans, 2013-03-22

"In a major reality blast to those who tote gun bans in the name of Mahatma Gandhi and other famous leaders, it is actually a little-known fact that Gandhi himself was openly opposed to gun bans. In fact, he proclaimed a nationwide gun disarmament to be the 'blackest' deed of the entire British ruling period in India."

L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise: The Only Defense is a Good Offense, 2013-03-17
Boris Karpa's excellent short essay on what's wrong with "the gun debate."
PrisonPlanetLive: Eyewitness: Yes, The Nazis Did Confiscate Our Guns, 2013-02-27

"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn't love freedom enough. And even more - we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward."
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

US gun owners debate the same old talking points, 2013-01-03

Posted on an on-line forum:

[alias] wrote: Good read

The Riddle of the Gun

My reply:

Same old BS… let's figure out "reasonable restrictions." Then having identified guns as a causal agent and gained acceptance of that premise inevitably the end result is a total ban. This is blindingly obvious and yet still people can be baffled by a few thousands words of grammatically correct sophistry.

Thomas Hamilton killed a school full of children in 1996 under UK gun laws your gun grabbers dream about (i.e. post the 1988 semi-auto rifle ban). Derek Bird killed a dozen people in a spree killing using a double barrel shot gun and a .22 bolt action rifle in 2010 (i.e. post the 96/97 handgun ban).

Either you guys get your heads in the game and understand what "shall not be infringed" means or hand them in now and save the government money from the trouble of rounding them up at gunpoint.

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2012

AmidsTheNoise: Choose Your Own Crime Stats, 2012-12-31
Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Scotland on Sunday: Armed police to patrol all of Scotland, 2012-12-23
Nationalising the police force - turning them into Eurocops divorced from their communities, an armed, occupying force.
This is not about protecting the indivudial, this is about control by fear. When seconds count the police are only minutes away.
Russia Today: Going After Guns: 'You can't have police state & armed population', 2012-12-19
In spite of the best efforts of the interviewer, Paul Craig Roberts explains the real agenda behind the US "gun control" hysteria.
CNN: Piers Morgan resorts to name calling after losing Gun Control debate, 2012-12-19
Piers Morgan is an utter tool, why is he given airtime?
"We need to ban gun control laws."
SGTBull: CT. COP on Sandy Hook Inconsistencies: "THINGS DON'T ADD UP", 2012-12-18
Comments: "Babies thrown from incubators meets the Reichstag fire…"
SGTBull: Sandy Hook: Cop in CT on Contradictions, Inconsistencies & Gun Grab - Part One, 2012-12-31
SGTBull: Sandy Hook: Cop in CT on Contradictions, Inconsistencies & Gun Grab - Part Two, 2012-12-31
Operation Gladio - world-wide, government false-flag terror.
TheTrutherGirls: Connecticut School Shooting: Obama Talking 'Policy Change' Already, 2012-12-14
A rational take on the Newton, Colorado shootings of 14 December 2012 from TheTrutherGirls. Obviously, the tragedy will be exploited by the authoritarian elite to further their agenda of social control and subjugation - bathing themselves in the blood of slaughtered children as elites have since time immemorial.
Is this more false flag terror? Too early to tell.
TheAlexJonesChannel: New Suspect in Batman Colorado Massacre, 2012-07-21
Alex Jones from Alex Jones' Infowars.com gives a cook's tour of government false flag terror. This one is just a little too convenient for the up-coming signing of the UN gun ban treaty. And yes, there are many problems with the official story of what happened at Dunblane in March 1996.
Operation Gladio - world-wide, government false-flag terror.
Osama bin Laden can command legions of zombie mind-controlled suicide killers from his cave in Pakistan and so can the Directorate of the CIA from their offices in Virginia.
Couldn't happen in the UK thanks to "strict gun control" - think again, 2011: Derrick Bird 'Unlawfully Killed' 12 Victims. You're on your own until help arrives… what are you going to do?
How to stop a massacre.
Prison Planet: UK Bans Self-Defense Expert From Entering Country, 2012-05-09

"Larkin told BBC Radio 4 that the banning order was "gross over-reaction" and said the real reason behind it was because he had publicly criticized the country's laws on self-defense, which are ambiguous at best and leave victims completely vulnerable to criminals."
"The notion that Larkin may have been banned from entering Britain primarily because he has been critical of the country's laws on self-defense is plausible given the fact that others like radio talk show host Michael Savage have also been banned for holding controversial political opinions."

Tim Larkin's "Target Focus Training" website
BBC: Horden deaths inquiry focuses on six weapons licences, 2012-01-03

"Police investigating the deaths of three women and the man who shot them before killing himself are expected to focus on why he owned six guns."

No prizes for guessing that the police will be found to be without fault but "stronger controls" will be needed. Most likely, requirement for medical checks to obtain/keep Firearm and Shot Gun Certificates.
When it comes to government, nothing succeeds as much as failure. Victim Disarmament campaigners are always quick to use such tragedies as an excuse for more "gun control."

Meantime, this BBC article displays the typical shoddy journalism and reporting.

"Mr Atherton had been a member of a gun club in the area but it is not known if he was still an active member."

Gun clubs are required to keep a register of attendance and allow it to be inspected by the police. So if the police really don't know it's because they don't care.

Yet another fail for "the authorities" but, of course, it will be business as usual thereafter.

For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
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2011

CCHR: Can Prozac Cause Kids to Kill? A Canadian Judge Has Ruled it Can, 2011-12-07
It's a crazy world when I have to agree with Michael Moore. Big Pharma is killing you and your children
See also, Canadian judge rules SSRI antidepressants like Prozac can cause children to commit murder (Natural News, 2011-12-18).
Human Events: Europeans and Guns: It is time for Europeans to support the natural right of human beings to protect oneself with a firearm, by Brian H Darling (of the Cato Institute), 2011-11-29
"Read the column the UK's Daily Mail pulled for being too dangerous."
Youtube: Guns for peace, 2011-03-09
An outstanding video from the National Association for Gun Rights India.
Gun control is people control.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Power Line: Malcolm's Moment, 2011-08-18
Spot-on commentary on the some of the real problems underlying the rash of rioting in the UK.
Vigilant Citizen: The London Riots and How They Will be Used to the Elite's Advantage, 2011-08-10
Vigilant Citizen hits the nail on the head: the elite classes are out of control, at work cementing their fascist regime.
pic: Anders Breivik wearing police cap. Violence Quelled As Cops Warn Off Vigilantes (Sky News, 2011-08-11) because, of course, the police are there to protect you: Why police were so soft on London looters: They 'were ordered to stand and observe' as capital burned (but in Manchester they were hunting looters within hours) (Mail Online, 2011-08-10).
Update: London Riots Aftermath: UK Government Calls for Social Media Bans and Shutdowns (Vigilant Citizen, 2011-08-25).
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Autonomous Mind: Police swift to seize the new opportunity, 2011-07-31
Always keen to capitalise on a tragedy, the victim disarmament industry moves to suppress dissent.
The police are becoming ever more ridiculous in their pronouncements, Anarchists should be reported, advises Westminster anti-terror police (guardian.co.uk Sunday 31 July 2011 19.14 BST).
But don't let that fool you: Another alien universe heard from: Guns "should be illegal for all but properly constituted, trained and controlled agencies of governments." (Sipsey Street Irregulars 2011-08-01). Mike Vanderboegh puts it in context.
BBC: Children under 10 issued shotguns, BBC learns, 2011-03-24
The British black propaganda machine promotes yet another bizarre moral panic over a non-existent "problem" meantime promoting illegal wars that kill children in untold numbers. Are these people simply insane or are they pure evil?
The Independent: Swiss stick to their guns in weapons vote, 2011-02-14
As usual in the British mainstream media, the article is a model of bias and anti-gun demagoguery.
Switzerland's murder rate is well below that of the UK (even after the UK government artificially massages the rate downwards see, Number-crunchers demand independence)
Murders (per capita) (most recent) by country (nationmaster.com)
Switzerland lists 17th in male suicide
Suicide rate (Males) (most recent) by country (nationmaster.com) - just below France which, last time I checked, doesn't have machine guns in the home.
YouTube: True News: Gabrielle Giffords, Jared Loughner and Madness, 2011-01-09
Highly pertinent comments from philosopher Stefan Molyneux.
See also:
Paul Joseph Watson's "Toning Down The Rhetoric" Means Obeying Big Government, 2011-01-09.
FLC202, The Latest Shootings in America: An English View, Sean Gabb, 11th January 2011 in which Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance examines what it might mean for us in Britain.
A snippet of genius from Alvie, "The Cliffs of Insanity:" A Contrast.
Do you understand yet?
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2010

TheyWorkForYou.com: Firearms Control
House of Commons debates, 20 December 2010, 6:19 pm

21 Dec 2010, comment from Derek Bernard's Firearms Law List:

The two serious multiple shootings events in Northern England earlier his year, by Derrick Bird in June and Raoul Moat in July, led to an Inquiry by the UK Parliament's Home Affairs Committee (HAC). The HAC has now issued its report and the subject was debated in Parliament.

Don't expect any searching questions, or any useful answers, for there aren't any. Just as there weren't any during the Inquiry, or in the HAC Report. British politicians and police take real pride in wasting lots of police resource on the "toughest gun control laws in the world". They "know," absolutely know, that strict gun controls are such a good thing, that searching questions and research into costs and benefits would be pointless.

Mail online: U.S.-style gunshot sensors installed across Birmingham in bid to combat gun crime, 2010-12-09

"Police are hopeful that the technology will reduce gun-crime in the area and help increase conviction rates."

It makes a change from banning things that are already banned but, I suspect, is just as futile. At least somebody is making a lot of money at the taxpayers' expense, whichever way it goes. Nothing rewards government so well as does failure.
Youtube: Lima's Every-Day Carry (EDC), 2010-10-27
She may be small but she packs quite a punch. Limalife shows you how it should be done.
Youtube: Carrying a Gun and a Baby
A video from Limalife that you really shouldn't miss.
Youtube: Comment Comeback: Civilian vs Uniformed Carry and Children
Limalife addresses a critic and the hypocritical double-standard many people apply.
Mail Online: Police need more powerful weapons to combat 'Mumbai-style terror attacks' says police chief, Last updated at 11:25 AM on 15th April 2010
Telegraph.co.uk: Police plan 30-minute response to head off Mumbai-style siege, Published: 7:00AM BST 22 Jun 2009
Telegraph.co.uk: Police trained by SAS to prepare for Mumbai-style attacks, Published: 7:10AM BST 26 Oct 2010
What's old is new again… consider this: Tottenham Outrage 1909 and Siege of Sidney Street - 1911.
When seconds count, the police are minutes away, as the bumper sticker says. If not, they're just as likely to be running in the opposite direction or, worse, setting up a "perimeter" to "secure" the crime scene while the dying inside proceeds apace.
A bolt-action rifle won't do? I hardly think so.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Less guns for the police, more for the people is the only rational way forward if we are to be free people, not serfs, and live in safety.
Alex Jones' Infowars.com: Concealed Carry Event Coincides With University of Texas Shooting, 2010-09-28
Professor John Lott and Alex Jones discuss the University of Texas, Austin, shooting that occurred on the day of Lott's scheduled appearance to talk about victim disarmament.
Magna Carta Society Blog: The time has come to act to restore our common law rights
A presentation by John Hurst to the British Constitution Group, July 2010.
For more see the UK Bill of Rights, Claim of Right, 1688/9 section, below.
Breitbart.com: How Obama Reduced Crime Rates Last Year by John R Lott, Jr, 2010-09-16
The latest FBI crime stats are out and are uncomfortable reading for the gun ban crowd, in the light of the huge guns and ammo buying spree recently undertaken by the American public.
Alex Jones' Infowars.com: New York Man Arrested for Defending Home and Family, 2010-09-08
Englishman Paul Joseph Watson sets America straight on the way of the gun (control):
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
news.com.au: Toy guns will have to be licensed in Queensland under new firearms laws, 2010-09-04
Although this might at first appear hilariously absurd, in actuality it's the logical extension of the imposition of laws denying the individual the right to bear arms. For that matter, every breath you take will soon be regulated and taxed, all for the greater good - supposedly.
Sky News: Armed Cops Hunt For Gun Rampage Suspect

Monday July 05, 2010 David Williams and Huw Borland, Sky News Online
Armed police are hunting for a former nightclub bouncer they believe shot his ex-girlfriend, killed her lover and left an officer fighting for his life.

It should be noted that, although he had at one time been the holder of a Shot Gun Certificate, Moat would not have been eligible to legally own or use firearms thanks to his spell in prison.
Don't worry the police will protect you… oh, wait…
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
BBC News: Grandmother jailed over WWII 'family heirloom' pistol, 2010-06-16

A grandmother has been jailed for five years for possessing a "family heirloom" World War II pistol. Gail Cochrane, 53, had kept the gun for 29 years following the death of her father, who had been in the Royal Navy.

Another dangerous criminal behind bars. Not.
The government is firmly in control but completely out of control.
Sky News: Dramatic Footage Captures Mystery Attack

6:38am UK, Wednesday June 09, 2010, Rob Cole, Sky News Online
"Kenneth Foster, 71, and his wife Josie, were watching TV when shots were fired through their front window, showering them with glass."

A drive-by. Good to see Britain's "strict gun control" has it all under control. Relax, go back to watching TV.
Sky News: Taxi Driver Gunman Kills 12 In Rampage

"Adam Arnold, Sky News Online, 7:47pm UK, Wednesday June 02, 2010
Twelve people have been killed and at least 25 others injured after a gunman went on a rampage in west Cumbria."

Another triumph for Britain's "strict gun control."
Weapons used were a 12 gauge double-barreled shotgun and CZ 452-2E ZKM .22-calibre bolt-action rifle.
Are you stupid enough to believe that making yourself defenceless makes you safer?
Update: Cumbria Massacre: 'Family Feud' Probe (Sky News, June 03, 2010). Calls For Tougher Gun Laws After Shootings (Sky News, June 03, 2010).
In case you're foolish enough to imagine more "gun control" can make a difference, consider: Life for Kalashnikov gunman (Manchester Evening News, July 10 2000)
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Magna Carta Society Blog: The Reason for This Site
14 May 2010, John Hurst writes about about the philosophical connection between the Magna Carta Society and the various campaigns to reclaim the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (RKBA).
The Arms Trade Treaty: Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Prospects for Arms Embargoes on Human Rights Violators [PDF 620K]
David B. Kopel, Paul Gallant and Joanne D. Eisen

Abstract: Advocates of the proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) promise that it will prevent the flow of arms to human rights violators. This Article first examines the ATT and observes that the ATT, if implemented as promised, would require dozens of additional arms embargoes, including embargoes on much of Africa. The Article then provides case studies of the current supply of arms to the dictatorship in Zimbabwe and to the warlords in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Article argues that the ATT would do nothing to remediate the conditions that have allowed so many arms to be acquired by human rights violators. The ATT would have no more effective force than the embargoes that are already imposed by the U.N. Security Council; therefore U.N. member states, including China, which violate current Security Council embargoes, could just as well violate ATT embargoes. Accordingly, the ATT is a distraction, and human rights activists should instead examine alternative methods of addressing the problem of arms in the hands of human rights violators.

How Many Global Deaths from Arms? [MS Word 267K]
Reasons to Question the 740,000 Factoid being used to Promote the Arms Trade Treaty by David B. Kopel, Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen

Abstract: Currently, the United Nations is drafting an Arms Trade Treaty to impose strict controls on firearms and other weapons. In support of hasty adoption of the Treaty, a UN-related organization of Treaty supporters is has produced a report claiming that armed violence is responsible for 740,000 deaths annually. This Article carefully examines the claim. We find that the claim is based on dubious assumptions, cherry-picking data, and mathematical legerdemain which is inexplicably being withheld from the public. The refusal to disclose the mathematical calculations used to create the 740,000 factoid is itself cause for serious suspicion; our own calculations indicate that the 740,000 figure is far too high.

Further, while the report claims that 60% of homicides are perpetrated with firearms, our review of the data on which report claimed to rely yields a 22% rate. The persons responsible for the report have refused to release their homicide calculations, or any other calculations.

This Article also shows how a narrow focus on restricting firearms ownership continues to distract international attention from life-saving, viable solutions. We propose some practical alternatives which have already saved lives in war-ravaged areas. (Draft submitted to law review publications.)

Locally as PDF - How Many Global Deaths from Arms? [PDF 328K (2010-04-04)].
Yet another demonstration of the fact that the UN is pushing an agenda for global control via black propaganda and pseudo science (nothing of this is simply about guns).
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2009

Sunday Telegraph: Tories back new rights to help home owners protect themselves from burglars
I'm confident this is simply the Tories looking for soundbites in an attempt to differentiate themselves from New Labour - when in fact there's no actual disconnect on policies for anything important. (I can't see a Castle Law coming out of this.)
The whole "reasonable force" thing is a non-sequitur in actual fact, a mis-statement of the law. "Reasonable force" in fact only really applies to detaining somebody when making an arrest. For common law purposes the right to self defence means the right to use whatever force is necessary to stop the transgression against your person or property - including lethal force and using a weapon as necessary. The true facts of the matter have been very carefully kept as occult knowledge in recent decades, using all kinds of bizarre sophistry. See Mike Burke's essay, "Reasonable Force" part two.
It remains to be seen whether the true facts will emerge from this debate. From previous experience that appears unlikely.
This is Surrey Today: Ex-soldier faces jail for handing in gun
As I've remarked before, the police, and the law, in the UK are a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.
See also, Grandfather arrested at dawn and held in a police cell for SIX hours for swearing once at council official (Daily Mail, 2009-11-11).
The Smallest Minority: How's that Gun Control Working Out for You?
On point commentary from an American blogger,

Yup, Gun crime in the UK is very low by international standards, but it keeps going UP. It keeps going up in the face of Alun Michael's proclamation that "only the strictest control of firearms will protect the public."
It's a stone bitch when reality won't conform to the theory, isn't it? And it's even worse when someone points it out.

Gun crime doubles in a decade (Telegraph, 2009-10-27).
How anyone can imagine that letting those CO19 cowboys wander the streets of London with weapons could make anyone safer is beyond me - Armed officers placed on routine foot patrol for first time (Telegraph, 2009-10-22)… looks like somebody came to their senses, Met U-turn as gun police taken off London streets (London Evening Standard, 2009-10-27).
WRS (World Radio Switzerland): Staring down the barrel of Swiss gun traditions
Switzerland's "bad example" is a perennial thorn in the side of victim disarmament advocates everywhere. I expect the well-funded trans-national efforts to end the Swiss militia system to expand and continue. There's no way an anti-gun movement can make any headway in Switzerland without significant foreign funding and pressure from foreign governments.
Cabinet turns down ban on arms at home (swissinfo.ch, 2009-12-16).

"The Swiss government has rejected a people's initiative that aims to ban more than one million military weapons from Swiss households."
"It said on Wednesday that current legislation on weapons offered enough protection against abuse and that it was not going to put forward a counter-proposal to the initiative."

Daily Mail: Don't call us for help about yobs - hooligans are councils' problem, says top police officer
pic: Daily Mail front page.
2009-09-26
You're on your own until help arrives… good luck with that…
As I frequently remark, the police are not here to protect you. The police are here to "maintain public order" - which when translated into what the police are actually observed to do turns out to be that the police are primarily concerned with revenue collection and social control measures applied to that. Whatever it is the police are supposed to be, the police have no responsibility to protect you as an individual. Instead, the police actively take steps to prevent you from being able to protect yourself - because that might interfere with revenue collection.
The police will come out on the streets to maintain public order when it suits the elite classes - check out YouTube footage of the various G20 summit police/military deployments, police agent provocateur included.
Britain is a Police State and as such thrives on terror and on fear, used to cow the population, especially in these times of economic crisis.
As for, "new government measures to tackle the problem" and such nostrums remember that when it comes to government nothing succeeds like failure. Expect more of your rights and liberties to disappear.
Sunday Mail: Exclusive: Secret legal papers expose Scotland's blade terror
Let us actually engage our brains:

"Of the 41 people convicted, all but three had previous convictions…"

…so people who, clearly, aren't impressed by the law are going to start taking notice if you really, really mean it. Bullshit.
Self-defence is a human right, laws against the carrying of weapons disarm only those who are minded to obey law. It's human nature! I despair at how dumb people are!
Sky News: Deaths Up During Anti-Knife Crime Drive
When it comes to government, nothing succeeds like failure.

"… But the number of under-20s killed by a knife or sharp object did not change."

"… And deaths were actually up among people aged 20 or over."

"… The Home Office-led initiative will now be extended into a second phase, with £5m available to the 10 original forces and six others."

I simply couldn't make this stuff up. These people are insane.
For the Children
From my INBOX: email exchange with David Wainwright re victim disarmament.
The moral high ground is where it's at - and people need to think long and hard about where that actually is.
Sky News: G20 officer could face a charge of killing as post-mortem shows protester did NOT suffer a heart attack
If this were an isolated incident maybe you could shrug it off - but it isn't: G20 'Attack Victim' Feared For Her Life (Sky News).
Fact: Britain is a police state. The police are not here to protect you, they never have been, they are here to protect public order not you.
But, for me, the most sickening aspect of this affair is not the behaviour of the police and government - that is business as usual - it is the members of the public who make comments supporting the police action. Go watch, The Nazis - A Warning From History [DVD] [1997] (Amazon.co.uk) and think for yourself.
pic: Police Medic: he'll beat you well with his magic wellness stick.
The Smallest Minority: Of That, I Have No Doubt
An interesting Blog flamewar re victim disarmament has ignited that's dragged both sides of the Atlantic into the fray.
Serendipitously, I recently met Guy Smith of http://www.gunfacts.info fame for a session of contemplation on the Tree of Woe. Guy has not grasped why Brits accept the awful violent crime and the denial of their right to self-defence. Of course, I wasn't the one to be able to explain but examination of the threads in this blogwar will give insight.
(The best I came up with, I think, is my currently favoured observation: fact is, the average person is as dumb as a bag of hammers and 50% of people are even dumber than that.)
A typical example: Gun Sales Soar Over Obama Crackdown Fears, Sky News reports with a strong anti-self defence slant stating that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens will create violence - without any reference to actual facts.
It appears that it is impossible for most people to grasp that deliberately making yourself defenceless cannot make you safer.
I remarked to Guy, recently via email, that I might as well be living in a village in the Middle Ages trying to argue that demons don't exist.
Multiple Victim Shootings
A snapshot from my INBOX re recent news headlines.
Sky News: School Killer's Last Moments On Camera
Yet another spree killer.
The same tired old calls to ban banned things some more (despite it being widely acknowledged that Germany's numerous "gun control" laws are onerous and strictly enforced in a typically efficient manner). Even though the British experience amply demonstrates it won't make any difference: Life for Kalashnikov gunman (Manchester Evening News, July 10 2000) - a shooting spree with multiple banned weapons in the UK. Quite apart from consideration of the gunning down of soldiers and policemen in Northern Ireland.
Crazy people wandering around and indulging in killing sprees. By the time the police "rapid response team" turns up it's all over. And yet, supposedly, I'm crazy for wanting a gun to defend myself.
Sky News: Gun Crime Database To Track Weapons
The National Ballistics Database goes on-line. The government never tires of databases despite the fact that in actual use the benefits are negligible whilst the costs are high. But great for generating paperwork and making "targets."
BBC News: Police forces 'need restructure'

"The 43 English and Welsh police forces are the most expensive in the world and are in need of dramatic change, the think tank Reform has said."
"It says they are run as inefficient and costly fiefdoms accountable only to weak police authorities."

That should read, "inefficient and corrupt." The police in the UK are little better than organised crime, extorting money from the general public by way of fines and forfeitures being their primary concern and activity.
Any "reform" will be as effective as shuffling the deck-chairs on the Titanic. The systemic corruption of Britain's governmental and quasi-governmental organizations is being exposed by the economic crisis destroying the wealth (largely derived from North Sea oil and gas and financial market usury) that heretofore masked just how deeply the cancer runs.
That is what the political classes are worried about - how will the people react when the bread and circuses disappear?
Scotland on Sunday: Calman sets sights on gun control power
Scots politicians never see a ban (or a tax imposition/hike) that they don't like.
In actuality this is more about the powers of Westminster vs Holyrood than "gun control" and gun owners in general, and air gun owners in particular, are just a convenient politically impotent minority for Scottish politicians to flex their political muscle on.
More lies, damned lies, and Government statistics
Murder rate increasing amid epidemic of knife and gun crime (The Daily Telegraph).

"The murder rate has risen in England and Wales in the past year, crime figures are expected to show next week."

Britain records 18% fall in gun deaths (The Independent).

"The number of deaths in Britain from gunshot wounds has fallen to a 20-year low despite concerns about levels of violent crime."

As usual with "news reporting" and "official figures" you pays your money and you takes your choices as suits your own personal prejudices. (For the information of our foreign viewers I note: The Daily Telegraph supports the Tory Party, currently the party in opposition, and The Independent supports the present Labour Government.)
The drop in gun-related deaths may be the sign of something else entirely: that the hospital system is becoming better at dealing with the recipients of gunshot wounds (perhaps aided by developments in combat medicine from Iraq and Afghanistan) and the mortality rate is falling even though gun crime isn't.
See also, Credit crunch crimewave: Burglaries up, knife attacks up and a row over fiddled figures (Daily Mail).
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2008

The Scotsman: 'Obsessed' student's home had arsenal of illegal firearms
More proof, were any needed, of the futility of "gun control."
And no, I don't know him. Some of the comments are hilarious in their stupidity.
A correspondent has pointed out to me that they forgot to print, "deadly arsenal" in the headline and says he hopes that the police won't show too much interest in the "potentially lethal knives" he's got in his kitchen drawer.
JD Tuccille's essay, Beware of well-armed Europeans, worth a look in this context.
BBC News: 'Selective' knife figures blasted

"I hope you will agree that the publication of prematurely released and unchecked statistics is corrosive of public trust in official statistics"
Sir Michael Scholar, UK Statistics Authority

As I've said before - there are lies, damned lies, and then there are government statistics.
And all the announcements that will be made about what has been done, is being done, to "fix" this - more lies.
Government statistics are not information, they are black propaganda.

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail. Without it nothing can succeed. He who molds public opinion is greater than he who enacts laws."
President Abraham Lincoln

BBC News: Open verdict at Menezes inquest
Police death squads in operation in the UK - worthy of any South American banana republic.
The police clearly lied and the jury did not believe their lies.
The Coroner ruled out a verdict of unlawful killing because, however much you pretend to yourself otherwise, agents of the state must be able to kill with impunity to impose "liberal democracy" on the subject. The only basis for the rule of law in this country is the gun - our constitution (Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, the Treaty of the Union) were torn up and replaced by lies, long ago.
See also my 2005 item on the Menezes shooting.
Even the former head of MI5 will admit Britain is a Police State!

"It is time to take stock and to repeal abusive laws and policies enacted in recent years"
Ministers 'using fear of terror' (BBC News)

YouTube: India gun control enabled Mumbai massacre
Notice anti-gunners are reduced to inventing reasons why Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) Laws, that allow citizens to legally carry guns for self-defence, weren't the cause of the drops in the crime rates in the US - a bit of a comedown from the claims anti-gun groups made that "blood would run in the streets" as the result of citizens being allowed the means to self-defence. The best argument anti-gunners can raise against CCW laws is a claim that they make no difference. And people wonder why all I can do is laugh and point at such idiots?
An appropriate time to re-read Goodbye Dodge City by Gallant and Eisen.
Telegraph blogs: Damian Green's arrest: the police state is coming (Philip Johnston)
Coming? It's already here you stupid asshole. As if the Tories would behave any differently if they held the machinery of power.

As every man goes through life he fills in a number of forms for the record, each containing a number of questions … There are thus hundreds of little threads radiating from every man, millions of threads in all. If these threads were suddenly to become visible, the whole sky would look like a spider's web, and if they materialized as rubber bands, buses; trams and even people would all lose the ability to move, and the wind would be unable to carry torn-up newspapers or autumn leaves along the streets of the city. They are not visible, they are not material, but every man is constantly aware of their existence… Each man, permanently aware of his own invisible threads, naturally develops a respect for the people who manipulate the threads.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Cancer Ward, 1968.

The Irish Times: Cabinet agrees to blanket ban on licensing of handguns
The Republic of Ireland, ironically enough, follows Britain's lead in banning legally held handguns.

"Criminal justice legislation already being drafted will be amended to include provisions that will ban the granting of handgun licences under any circumstances."

Minister Dermot Ahern Outlines Handguns Ban (Dept of Justice, Eire).
Change.gov: Barack Obama: Urban Policy

Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn't have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.
(retrieved Fri Nov 7 21:20:44 UTC 2008 from http://change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy/.)

The UK media is reporting the gun and ammo buying spree by the American public as some kind of racist paranoia, yet on Barack Obama's own website he details plans to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban and deprive American citizens of their lawful, constitutional rights.
If Obama's approach to public policy in general is as bizarre and nonsensical as the notion of "making guns in this country childproof" then not just America but the whole world is in very deep trouble indeed.
It proves yet again, if proof were needed, the duplicity of the mainstream media and that the law offers no real protection for fundamental human rights.
(2008-11-09) Sky News, at least, have payed attention to the email I sent them and have edited their coverage to correctly report Obama's stance: Obama Win Triggers US Gun Rush. Of course, their linked news stories don't mention self-defence usage nor analyse the fall in homicide rates after the passing of CCW laws but instead emphasize criminal misuse.
Oleg Volk's LiveJournal entry re this post-2008 election gun-buying spree sums up the situation succinctly.
Australian Shooter: Evaluating Britain's handgun ban
An appropriately scathing retrospective of the government's actions from the redoubtable Mr Greenwood.
The Scotsman: MacAskill ups ante in battle for air weapon licensing
Apart from the fact that Scottish politicians have banititus to an even greater extent than the English, this is political posturing to do with the powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament by the Westminster Parliament. Notice how air guns have morphed into "air weapons." The larger agenda is criminalizing the activities of the law-abiding as a part of the process of building a police state. That's plainly what's being done: Centuries of British freedoms being 'broken' by security state, says Sir Ken Macdonald (The Telegraph).
Telegraph: Gun crime 60pc higher than official figures

"I think Lord Beaconsfield said that there were three degrees of veracity - viz., lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Make that, …and British Government statistics.
Increasingly, the police aren't working for you anyway: Police forces hire out officers to private firms to make millions (The Scotsman).
The National Shooting Association

"The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising his or her sport in accordance with his or her needs."

They pointedly ignore that fact that the Republic of Ireland joined the UK in banning handguns because that doesn't fit their narrative, it seems by believing that the RoI Government won't do what it says: Handguns to go away again? ("On Target" blog).
Yet another ostensibly pro-gun group that is actually doing a disservice by discrediting and distracting from the existence of and necessity for the right to keep and bear arms.
Guns are weapons. You shoot to kill or you don't shoot at all.
Why can't you people get with the programme?
Edinburgh Evening News: Drugs gangs shoot it out in city
The joys of gun-free Britain…

"The area is known to harbour a number of young gangsters in their late teens or early 20s. Police say these people have ready access to firearms and an easy willingness to use them. They favour using motorcycles to carry out their hits."

It's got everything really: a blood feud between warring drugs gangs, live-fast-die-young, drive-bys on motorcycles, fat hard-drinking dull-witted (yeah, I know, it's Scotland and that describes a fair chunk of the entire adult population) policemen one step behind - and even babies held hostage! Of course it's really just spill-over from Glasgow.
BBC News: Focus on gun law after Finland killings
As usual, the anti-gun forces use a tragedy to push their agenda. Failure of the law and the authorities are taken as license for more of the same.
Of course it can't happen here in the UK with its comprehensive gun ban… Teenagers add machine guns to their arsenal (The Observer).
Facts and figures about Finland's gun culture (The Associated Press).
I'm sure the Finnish tradition of marksmanship makes the political classes of the new Europe very nervous: Simo Häyhä The White Death - World's Greatest Sniper.
The government cannot protect you (and it's not even really trying). There are crazy people out there. You do the math.
YouTube: Heller Yeah!
In his own words, Dick Heller on the U.S. Supreme Court's Heller decision.
NRA-ILA: Post-Heller Junk Science

In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court's Heller decision, desperate anti-gunners are grasping at pseudoscientific "research" to revive their gun-ban plans.
by Paul Gallant and Joanne D. Eisen

Their closing words are highly relevant to the UK:

We must begin to demand that researchers who are guilty of deliberate deception offer more accurate information, and adhere to more rigorous scientific principles, so that public policy is premised on sound research, not on junk science.

If only.
Anti-gun groups are and will be using all possible avenues of sophistry to transform a right into a privilege: Pharmaceuticals, Guns, & Government = People Bans.
Sky News: Wanted film posters 'glamourise guns and violence', rules advertising watchdog
pic: too hot to handle.

"…we considered, that because the ads featured a glamorous actress, action poses, several images of or related to guns and aspirational text, they could be seen to glamourise the use of guns and violence."

In the UK, even pictures of guns are too dangerous for the public to handle.
Even the warmed-over lefties at Spiked think it's a bit rich: Wanted for crimes against free expression.
YouTube is going with the zeitgeist, YouTube curbs videos fuelling gang violence (The Guardian).
The Guardian: Firearms: cheap, easy to get and on a street near you
This report from a UK newspaper makes it clear that, whilst the victims are disarmed and defenceless thanks to the law, criminal use of firearms is flourishing.

The Guardian's source said that guns were becoming a first rather than a last recourse. "A gun used to be used as a mediator; now everything is re[s]olved with a gun. It's brought the heat on everyone. Before you would get a two [years jail sentence], now it's a five. It's getting like the US now, like The Wire. It's like a prediction of what will happen here. I think they all think they're playing Grand Theft Auto. It's madness out there."

According to this Guardian report it would appear the UK is more like America than America itself. And, of course, the picture is mis-captioned: it's an Enfield No 2 Mk I* revolver, not a Webley - I helpfully emailed them a correction on that but, I fear, there's not much I can do for the rest of the article.
BBC News: Brazil launches anti-gun appeal
Brazilian politicians believing they can get mileage out of blaming the guns for Brazil's problem with crime. Since presumably the ignorant and unsophisticated people of Brazil are happy to embrace the tenets of sympathetic magic… just as the population of the UK does. Actually, the Brazilians seem to be a bit more clued-up and intelligent than Britoids: Brazilians claimed back their right to self-defence in a previous attempt by their government to deny them their rights.
The political classes everywhere refuse to take "no" for an answer when it doesn't match their agenda.
The Scotsman: US school triggers outrage by letting teachers carry guns
Commentators claim, predictably, that UK's gun and knife banning and denial of self defence works and stops children acquiring guns.
For some definition of "works" - The day the bullets flew (BBC News); Boy, 13, in court over firearms (BBC News).
The Scotsman: Hopes of city airgun ban shot down by trouble with the law
Edinburgh Council proving it can always do something to look even more foolish - though the Edinburgh courts are giving them a run for their money: Man fined for carrying gobstopper (BBC News).
We're supposed to believe that banning airguns will make all those people who would misuse them mysteriously safe. Or maybe they're just trying to turn Scotland into one big open prison because they can't keep the criminals in the prisons.
The Sun: Iraq hero slashed

"Shocked squaddies who were stabbed and battered by yobs during a night out claimed yesterday they'd be safer in Iraq."

Might that be because in Iraq they can defend themselves with firearms?
The Sun's "answer" is, of course, to ban things that are already banned. More laws, that always helps.
The Times: Baikal: the gangsters' gun
Apparently "gun control" is a woman's issue, since this was placed in "Life & Style, Women" section.
Of course a journalist can't be expected to tell the difference between a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol, even with pictures.
Boy, 13, in court over firearms (BBC News).
The Independent: 'Craft guns' fuel West Africa crime epidemic
Via sympathetic magic the guns cause the crime, it being Africa and all. They forgot to mention that the local Witchdoctor blesses each one so's to turn the bearer into a spree-killer zombie.
Damn those witches in league with Satan. Think of the children!
Only a fraction of mankind has emerged from the Dark Ages. Have you?
See also my 2003 article, Controls on Replica Guns. Although maybe I need to revise it since toy guns are contraband and you can be arrested, or even shot, for having one in a public place nowadays.
The Guardian: Don't shoot that burglar

"But does it really give the householder a new legal right? That is how it is being presented. But it looks uncannily like the old law to me, now in a new act of parliament."

I'm amazed by the fact that, in The Guardian of all places, a British journalist is calling out the Government on its propaganda. (Of course, The Guardian retains plausible deniability by putting it in the "comment is free" section.)
It's highly unusual to observe this sort of behaviour on the part of mainstream media but, once in a while, the truth slips out. Gordon Brown must be really unpopular with the political classes.
The offending statute is the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (c. 4).
The Independent: 14,000 knife victims a year

"Knife violence in Britain is far worse than official statistics suggest, with almost 14,000 people taken to hospital for injuries caused by knives and other sharp weapons last year."

The Guardian: Knife crime: Anti-stab protection vests given to key staff

"Stab and bullet-proof vests are being ordered in their tens of thousands to protect employees from increased levels of aggression, a move described as 'a shameful indictment of violence in Britain today'."

Expect another round of banning things to "solve" the problem, followed by much self-congratulation by the chattering classes. More laws. That always helps. Gordon Brown breaks record for new laws (Daily Telegraph).
Plus, of course, "adjustment" of the crime figures to "reflect new measures taken" - which can always be relied on to "bring crime down."
Check out The War Nerd Gary Brecher's Shank You Very Much, The fine art of prison war for why banning knives won't get you very far. Duh. It's not rocket science…Eight-year-old boy excluded from school after being caught converting pencil sharpener into knife (Daily Mail).

"We're suffering from a plague of sentient knives jumping out of cutlery drawers and flying around the streets, like something from an Iain M Banks novel, looking for somebody to stick themselves into."
the other rob, Samiszdata.net blog comments.

Or, if you really have a taste for the absurd, how about Man fined for carrying gobstopper (BBC News).
The Times: Top police officer Barbara Wilding: gang life replacing family life
The political classes have spent a generation deconstructing British civil society and the family and now they're surprised at the results?
And: Cherie Blair: 'I fear for my children' (The Independent) - WTF! She has the gall to say this! (For our foreign readers, Cherie Blair is the wife of our former Prime Minister who presided over policies directly responsible for the state of Britain today.) Her answer is, of course, more of the same failed, Stalinist police state policies that contributed to the problem in the first place.
DC vs Heller judgement from SCOTUS, Thu Jun 26 2008
District of Colombia et al v Heller [PDF 938K]
Although not a unanimous decision, there was unanimity on one very important point: the Second Amendment protects an individual right. Well, duh. This is hardly news to those of us who've studied the issue but it seems to be a shock to the press.
Note on p19 in the majority decision Justice Scalia (who, masterfully, completely trashed the dissenting opinions) talks about the natural law right to armed self defence that pre-exists the US Constitution and is recognised in English common law. Now perhaps someone will believe me when I say it.
Eric S Raymond's essay, A Brief History of Firearms Policy Fraud is useful background to those bemused by the issues here.
And now the fun really begins: lots of lawsuits…Mayor Daley calls Supreme Court's gun-ban reversal 'a very frightening decision' (Chicago Tribune). Presumably he's worried because Alan Gura is on the case: ChicagoGunCase.com.
The NY Times weighs in with, Gun Laws and Crime: A Complex Relationship. Howard Nemerov's analysis, The Brady Campaign to Define 'Sensible Gun Laws', gives us a more informative empirical analysis of "gun laws."
This judgement will have implications for the UK, at the very least it will put a brake on far the United Nations can go with civilian disarmament.
Head on down to the The Volokh Conspiracy for analysis, notably Interpretation vs. Construction in Heller.
Scottish Daily Express: Law Can't Protect You From Criminals Any More
pic: Headline: Law Can't Protect You From Criminals Any More.
2008-06-20
But for the "any more" on the end I could agree with the Sheriff. What it should read is:

"Law can't protect you and they've even given up pretending but will punish you for trying to protect yourself."

Don't bother to waste your time phoning for help: Rural people 'isolated' by plan to cut 999 calls (Telegraph).
The prisons are full anyway: Anger as violent criminals get fiscal fine deals (The Herald).
I don't understand why people can't wake up and smell the coffee. What is wrong with you people?

"There are none so blind as those who will not look. If you are one of those who will look, take a look around. You are surrounded - surrounded by millions who will not look. These are the blue pill people. Who are these blue pill people and why won't they look?"
Morpheus, The Matrix, 1999

Channel 4 TV: Disarming Britain Poll
Register your vote in the poll, for what it's worth.
The UK's Channel 4 weighs in with its Disarming Britain series, the same old anti-gun, anti-knife, anti-self defence propaganda BS that's been peddled by the UK media and political establishment for half a century and probably longer. The same failed strategy repeated over and over again. Of course, this time it really will make a difference, what with the intarw3bz and all.
According to all reports, attempting to make a pro-self defence comment (however anodyne) on the blog will not get past the moderators.
Mail Online: One-legged war veteran saves mother and baby from thugs … only to be arrested for carrying a truncheon
And people say I'm crazy for saying that the police are a big part of the problem.
Only free men - or Janissaries - are allowed to bear arms, in case you hadn't noticed.
At least in Canada you're still allowed to defend yourself, Montrealer acquitted in shooting death of policeman (globeandmail.com) but don't worry, the Canadian government is working hard to put a stop to that.
Daily Express: Scots Top UK Death League
Problematically for the gun and knife banning crowd, this can't be blamed on differences in laws within the UK: although Scots and English Law are significantly different, laws on firearms are reserved to the Westminster Parliament. Scotland, if anything, has more statutes bearing on knives… Sword ban is unkindest cut for Highland dancers (The Scotsman).
BBC News: Plan to restrict sales of airguns
Guns (especially given a sufficiently loose definition) aren't illegal enough already, apparently. Scottish politicians are concerned they don't look foolish enough and are redoubling their efforts. More laws - that always helps.
Meantime, a triumph for Japan's "strict gun controls" - Six dead in Tokyo stabbing spree (BBC News).
Sky News: On Gun Patrol In Manchester Gangland
Saturation police presence. They've fixed it, so they say. And I have a castle I can sell you…
Daily Mirror: Armed police safety fears after gun mistakes are revealed
It certainly used to be the case that an interest in firearms disqualified you from being in a police firearms team. A very sensible policy, obviously.
I gave weapons instruction in the Army, including in the Browning 9mm pistol, and I can assure you that this level of incompetence was not evidenced in the British Army at that time.
One problem is that that individual police officers need to have control of their personal weapons at all times and practise with them a lot more.
Guns are tools like any other, sensible handling and safety precautions in their use are not difficult for anyone to learn. Certainly, a lot easier than handling a car…then again you should probably worry somewhat more about police driving…Police Crashes (BBC News).
See also, SWAT Team Leader Uses Wrong Hand Signal Again (The Onion Radio News).
Meantime, in the US, the expansion of civilian gun ownership has been concurrent with a drop in firearms-related accident statistics: Firearm Safety In America 2007 (NRA Institute for Legislative Action).
Mail Online: Armed police raid home after mistaking Lara Croft dummy for gunman
Britain is now a bizarre anarcho-tyranny, strange and unrecognisable from the perspectives of my childhood and young adulthood. Laws and regulations proliferate so fast that nobody can possibly keep track of them. Worse than that, British Law is now a weird mashup of traditional English common law principles and the alien (and frequently philosophically incompatible) European Code Napoléon (Scottish and English law still haven't been reconciled after 300 years, what are these people thinking!). The laws and regulations are enforced both selectively and arbitrarily, depending on local circumstances and the phases of the moon. No one can be sure they aren't guilty, since no one can ever be sure exactly what the crimes are.
The laws that are especially vigorously enforced are to do with revenue raising, collecting taxes, fines, forfeitures and license fees.
The police, and the legal system, in the UK are now more of a liability than a help in pretty much any situation you can imagine as an individual or a family. Cops 'Target Law-Abiding To Hit Targets' (Sky News).

"Do you really think we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. There is no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking the law. Create a nation of lawbreakers and then you can cash in on the guilt. Now that's the system!"
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

BBC News: Soldiers 'supply guns to criminals'
This is an issue I've remarked on before (see my essay Controls on Replica Guns) and something that the Army has in secret taken very seriously for a long time. Units coming back from training abroad get very vigorous inspections of equipment and personal kit - certainly, at least, during the Cold War to my personal knowledge.
However, good soldiers are resourceful and highly adaptable whatever they're engaged in…you'll just have to content yourselves with hand-wringing and ponder on the hypocrisy of sending young men abroad to take democracy (whatever that's actually supposed to mean) and "freedom" at gunpoint to the heathen whilst the fundamental human right of self defence is denied in the UK.
BBC News: 'New tack' sought on gun control
By which they mean passing some new laws so's to ban things some more, including things that are already banned.
Predictably enough, the after action report is: Call for tightening of airgun law (BBC News).
Passing more laws. That always helps.
When it comes to government, nothing succeeds like failure.
The Scotsman: Rape victim's brave message to waiting police
pic: FORCE THE DOOR. When seconds count, the police are only minutes away…and then they stand around and do nothing very much. I really didn't know whether to laugh or cry when reading this. Seriously. Are you all completely mad?
And you think I'm crazy for wanting a gun to protect myself?
The Observer: Reichsjugendführer von Brown backs army cadet corps plan for schools
So first they ban guns then they make military training compulsory for schoolchildren because they need canon-fodder for their illegal invasions and occupations of foreign countries… reminds me of somewhere… ah well… Nothing to see here…
I really couldn't make this stuff up!
Terror threat to UK 'is growing' (BBC News) so we'll be holding rallies to celebrate the might of the British Army, Brown supports 'Armed Forces Day' (BBC News) and the Government's determination to fight the good fight against Terror. Meantime, we have you under surveillance, Council admits spying on family (BBC News).
Of course, you're still officially crazy if you want a gun to protect yourself.
Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership
A picture paints a thousand words. Indeed.
As is often the case with Blogs, the comments are the best part.
In this case "the pro-gun lobby" is one guy, Oleg Volk, an émigré Russian Jew living in America who supports himself as a freelance photographer and graphic artist: VolkStudio. In stark contrast the anti-gun lobby and the massive propaganda campaign associated with it, said propaganda parroted uncritically by the mainstream media, is heavily funded by governments and international business corporations.
YouTube (Al Jazeera): Guns in Montana
"THIS is what a free people look like."
BBC News: Teachers 'find drugs and weapons'
Of course things are perfectly safe in the UK now handguns have been banned (ABC News).
Meantime, round-ups of toy guns continue: Police to hold fake gun amnesty (BBC News). I couldn't make this stuff up… no really, I'm living in bizarro world…
USA Today: High court likely to favor gun rights
Not! If you believe that I'll have some of the pills you're taking.
Having managed to avoid the issue for most of the 20th Century the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is addressing the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution.
Being American and legally trained plain English is somewhat challenging for them. They're even quibbling about the punctuation.
Various State Constitutions also have arms-related clauses, it seems highly unlikely this will settle the matter.
The SCOTUS decision in this case could limit how far UN treaties can go in disarming American citizens and by implication the rest of the world. However, it seems clear to most informed commentators that SCOTUS will hand down a decision that effectively eliminates constitutional protections for gun ownership (for instance as they have for property ownership).
My expectation is that "shall not be infringed" will mysteriously allow for "reasonable regulation in the public interest" which do not have to pass strict standards of necessity, despite that being in blatant contradiction to all the facts of the matter.
See, Going Up for Second by John R Lott Jr (National Review) and DC vs Heller, Media Briefing Book from GunFacts.com.
Meantime, American citizens are moving the debate on: Packing in public: Gun owners tired of hiding their weapons embrace 'open carry' (LA Times).
The First Post: The middle classes are tooling up
See also, Jean Pierre Fusil armurier French arm regulation.

Homer: I'd like to buy your deadliest gun, please.
Gun Shop Owner: Aisle six, next to the sympathy cards.
 - The Simpsons: "The Cartridge Family."

YouTube (NRAVideos): NRA: To See Where Gun Licensing Leads, Look To England.
"The other side of the argument" that you'll never see in the UK media.
Meantime, supposedly the problem is the law is too lenient: Judges criticised over gun crime (BBC News). Apparently criminals start obeying the law if it's strict enough, you've just got to convince them you really, really mean it because, obviously, they all know deep in their hearts that they're going to get caught and punished.
Times Online: Police face new test: how to stop child of 8 armed with a gun?
Clearly "gun control" is working well in the UK.
Ideas in Progress (blog): In America Even Peasants Own a Car
Couldn't have put it better myself.
Granny get yer gun.
YouTube: 11yo Girl Sets New Record for Field Stripping Her AR15
Now that's what I call a wholesome, character-building activity for an 11 years old.
The comments are also worthwhile.
St Valentine's Day Massacre
An email correspondent helpfully sent me a link about the latest "school shootings" - as if it wasn't all over the UK news already.
Check out, Google Video: Suzanna Gratia-Hupp: What the Second Amendment is REALLY For.
"Gun Control" and the US Presidential hopefuls
Whatever the failings of the American political system, at least there are some obvious differences between the candidates on key issues - which is more than can be said here in the UK.
But see, San Francisco Chronicle: Rule by fear or rule by law?
BBC News: Anger over school shooting range
The government needs - young - people to fight in their illegal wars. If you aren't able to hold two contradictory ideas in your head at the same time nothing the government does will make any sense. Yes, time for you to re-read George Orwell's 1984 and ponder on Newspeak.
The Rochester Study may give some clues to those of us with open minds who want real solutions and not empty rhetoric.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
The Mail on Sunday: Pensioner arrested and locked in cell for shouting at yobs who threw stones at ducks
Yahoo: Man BRUTALISED by armed police who thought his MP3 player was a gun
Sadly, in the UK today, these sorts of incidents are commonplace. The police here are a part of the problem, not a part of the solution. But what am I saying, of course the police are always there to help (BBC News). I could not make this stuff up (Daily Mail).
BBC News: Summit plans to reform gun laws (Scotland)
Translation: second-rate political hacks want to ban some things some more and pretend they have the moral high ground. More gesture politics and nothing important will be done except for wasting a lot of public money and making life more difficult for law-abiding gun owners.
In addition, they may well be picking a fight with Westminster since regulation of firearms and explosives is a reserved power. Indeed, mysteriously the BBC's headline morphed from the one here to "Air weapon ban proposals rejected" at some point after it was posted. Perhaps they realise that people are beginning to notice that all this "urgent political action" doesn't appear to be having the desired effect.
See also, BBC News: Airgun ban takes a step forward.
The last thing they'll do is admit it's their failed social policies, including their denial of that fundamental human right, the right to keep and bear arms, that have lead us to the sorry state of Scotland - and the rest of Britain - today. European Commission report: Crime, Security and Safety in the EU [PDF 591K].
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html It's safe to assume I won't be invited to the summit.
BBC News: Deactivated gun ban 'by year end'
Accompanied by the customary shroud-waving, more of the same old bullshit.

"We already have the tightest controls in Europe but there is more we can do."
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith

Well, yes, for some definition of "controls." You can get into trouble for having toy swords (Evening Standard): Panto pirates told to report their plastic swords to the police. I could not make this stuff up.
What next… banning machine tools… cutting off people's trigger fingers? Years ago I commented about the futility of banning simple mechanical objects, when will people get finally a clue?
The Independent: Gun scourge on our streets: Nearly 1,000 shot this year
"The number of people treated for gunshot wounds has reached a three-year high - and more than one in 10 of the victims are under the age of 14 - prompting fears that Britain is in the grip of an escalating problem."
If "gun control" is "the answer" that's not evident here in the UK.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
» menu

2007

Mos Maiorum: The Ancient Ways of Rome and United Kingdom by Guy R Leven-Torres [PDF 133K]
Leven-Torres succinctly outlines what myself and many others researching the British Constitution have come to recognise: many politicians and public servants of this country have been, and continue to be, engaged in illegal and treasonous acts calculated to destroy British sovereignty and deny the constitutional rights and liberties of the British people.
Required reading.
Hamesucken, killing of a house-breaker
Ancient rights and liberties are guaranteed by both Scots and English constitutions and statute law, don't let anyone persuade you otherwise.
YouGov: Gun and Knife Crime, 11/09/2007 [PDF 119K]
You will note that the results of this poll call into question many of the Government's claims about gun crime.
Times online: Ministers 'covered up' gun crime.
BBC News: Shot boy's parents speak of loss
The response from the MSM (mainstream media) and politicians is the same tired old "we must get the guns off the streets," "tougher sentencing," chorus repeated ad nauseam.
Telegraph online: Former detective: It is a gangland culture.
The Rochester Study may give some clues to those of us with open minds who want real solutions and not empty rhetoric.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
The Human Right of Self-defense [PDF 1.08M]
The ever-reliable Eisen, Gallant, and Kopel deliver a timely, and thorough, review of National and International Law.
An important conclusion is reached after careful consideration of the facts:
"No government has the legitimate authority to forbid a person from exercising her human right to defend herself against a violent attack, or to forbid her from taking steps and acquiring the tools necessary to exercise that right."
Required reading.
See also, An International Human Right To Keep And Bear Arms, by Christopher J Schmidt.
Home Office Research Study 298 of 2006 - Critique by Colin Greenwood
More proof (if it were needed) that the Home Office doesn't commission research, it commissions results.
The Guardian: Police call for tougher gun crime laws
Not content with Victim Disarmament, the UK authorities now want to jail you for being a victim of gang violence.
High profile shooting incidents in America are always an auspicious time for calls for more 'gun control' in the UK.
BBC News: US university shooting kills 33
The highest death-toll in a mass shooting in America. The gunman roamed around for a couple of hours after an initial shooting incident.
Already UK news commentators are anticipating the American authorities using it as an excuse to disarm law-abiding American citizens. It's laughable to imagine (even if, for instance, Hillary Clinton manages to get elected as President) that the US is anywhere in sight of the level of so-called 'gun control' that signally failed to prevent the Dunblane Massacre - and even if it was, the numbers of firearms and ammunition in circulation in the black market will be enormous for decades to come.
The gunmen walking the streets in the UK are, apparently, of little concern since handguns are banned here.
As ever, I see it as yet another demonstration of the real problem: that a disarmed population cannot defend itself. WorldNetDaily: State quashed bill allowing handguns on campuses.
I still can't get my head around how can you imagine that making yourself defenceless can make you safer.
It's interesting that the killer turns out to be a KoreanSeoul is stunned by policeman's slaying of 56.
In case you imagine that 'modern' weapons are required for a lone psychopath to commit mass-murder, take a look at the Bath School disaster of 1927.
At present, it appears this was a classic "lone gunman" case (the fact he may have been taking prescribed psychoactive drugs is rather significant, however). Nonetheless, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) had previously issued a warning about a possible Beslan-style militant attack on a location such as this. Whatever is to be done, disarming the law-abiding isn't going to be an effective response - if you really want to prevent tragedies such as this.
I'm hopeful that public opinion is beginning to change, people are beginning to understand that the solution does not lie in 'controlling' things. Fundamental changes are required to make individuals more aware and more able to actively protect their own safety and that of others.
The government, and its agents, have no duty to protect you and government employees may even be penalised for doing so: Fireman faces punishment for risking his life in rescue.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Guns in Northern Ireland
Report from a source in Northern Ireland (NI) about Personal Protection Weapon (PPW) permits in the province. NI is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, however many things are done somewhat differently there than the rest of UK for all sorts of very complicated reasons.
ANANOVA: Reid moves to toughen gun crime law
More of the same tired old bullshit that's lead us to where we are today. You know what they say - "Insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results."
BBC News: How Trident hones in on gun crime - "Gun crime across England and Wales has increased every year over the last decade."
Be sure to read They have no guns - so they have a lot of crime by Dr Paul Gallant and Dr Joanne Eisen. The disparity between the UK's homicide rate and America's might not be as you imagine.
Gun Control: Does Biased Research Foster Workplace Danger? by Howard Nemerov demonstrates techniques used to lie to you.
See also, How governments create crime, by Dr Lech Beltowski [PDF 1.2M].
An email enquiry resulted in this Correspondence with the London Evening Standard, Feb 2007.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Telegraph.co.uk: Time to bite the bullet on gun ban
All for "sporting purposes" of course.
Having spent all that money compensating gun owners for their confiscated guns, now suddenly let them buy new ones. In what way does that make any sense?
Putting more guns into circulation whilst continuing to deny the law-abiding their right to self defence with effective weapons means that all this proposal would do is raise the spectre of a "legal handgun" being used in homicide or suicide.
This is sophistry, propaganda intended to divert attention from discussion about the real need to allow citizens of the UK to own, carry, and use handguns for self defence.
However "strict" licensing regulations are they are no protection from anything. Currently in the news a highly trained, highly selected, US astronaut who went off the rails. How can you be so foolish as to imagine "background checks" and police examinations can see into the human mind? In any case, why should policemen be allowed such discretion, such power over the individual? Is that a free society…or is that a police state?
Either we all have guns, or only the criminals and the government…though I'm not convinced they're so very different in character - both desire a monopoly of force in inter-personal relations.
In a free country we should all have guns. For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
BBC News: No 10 rejects police state claim
Well they would, wouldn't they.
By any reasonable objective standard Britain is a police state. Britain is the most heavily-policed country in the world. Britain is an Elective Dictatorship, the Doctrine of the Sovereignty of Parliament means, in actual fact, that a British subject has no rights.
Don't believe me? Check out the Australian High Court ruling from June 2000.
The words of (or attributed to) Martin Niemöller "First they came…" should weigh heavy on us…but, apparently, they don't.
How eager you are to become slaves.
Guardian Unlimited: 'There is no war on terror'
Try telling that to Blair and Bush. "Culture of legislative restraint"…if only
Freedom in Peril. Guarding the 2nd Amendment in the 21st Century [PDF 3.9M]
Leaked draft of the US National Rifle Association's, hard-hitting, controversial booklet.
ABC News: NRA's Graphic Attack on Its Enemies Leaked Onto Internet.
I love it.
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2006

A petition for Concealed Carry of Weapons (CCW) permits in the UK
Our Government "consulting the people" in a trendy "new" way by using "E-Petitions."
Speeches from Ministers about the new "service" make it clear that petitions, and pressure groups etc., that conform to desired government policies are used for propaganda purposes, whilst the others are dismissed as unrepresentative. See, for instance, Times online: A million motorists embarrass road price ministers.
ABC News: Gun control - a new study has found the 1996 gun buy-back had no effect on firearm deaths
(Australia.) Excellent discussion, with some objectivity creeping in to news reporting…I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.
See also the c.l.a.s.s. coverage of this report and various responses to it…
Study shows buyback had no effect on the murder rate.
BBC News: Huge weapons cache found in house
A useful propaganda coup in light of recent headlines about gun deaths. It's not clear whether this is in truth anything to do with criminal activity. Certainly it won't be a problem for the police to discover many technical violations of the UK's baroque "firearms control" laws, even if the gun-dealer was not of criminal intent.
I expect we would find that the "revolvers" mentioned in the report are legal to own (with a licence) black powder, cap and ball revolvers (modern reproductions of antique weapons).
Either way, it's guaranteed to make no significant dent in the illegal market in firearms in the UK. Most illegal guns in the UK are believed to be sourced from eastern Europe not America.
As always, the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
June 2007: my scepticism proved correct… BBC News: When is a gun not a gun?
Simply one of the more egregious cases of the Police ignoring the law and persecuting law-abiding citizens.
BBC News: Criticism over released offenders
Yet more evidence that the government and its agents cannot protect you. Not that they're not legally obliged to protect you in any case. If you don't protect yourself and your loved ones, nobody else will.
BBC News: Dangerous Assault Knives banned
Truly the lunatics are running the asylum.
If at first you don't succeed, redouble your efforts and look even more foolish.
Or perhaps we're turning Japanese - see, Japanese Gun Control by David B Kopel.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Brietbart.com: 8 Grocery Employees Stabbed in Tennessee
"MEMPHIS, Tenn.
A knife-wielding grocery store employee attacked eight co-workers Friday, seriously injuring five before a witness pulled a gun and stopped him, police said. …Police said two large kitchen knives used in the attack were found at the scene."
The police, supposedly, were almost there at the time. Yeah, right.
A citizen, successfully, using a gun to defend life. We won't be reading that in the national press, either in the USA or here - and certainly not without the spin.
Telegraph.co.uk: A manifesto for radical law and order reform: how Britain can beat the menace of crime
A manifesto for business as usual. If putting people in prison was the answer then Britain would have the lowest crime rates in Europe. If passing laws was the issue then the Labour Government has certainly done more of that than any government on record.
You can lead a horse to water…
BBC News: Opposition urge Clarke to resign
The unsightly, jug-eared, Charles Clarke as Home Secretary was the head of the UK Government organisation, the Home Office, tasked to "…ensure the protection and security of the public is aintained" (quote from the Home Office website).
'Systemic failure'
See also, Telegraph.co.uk: The violent criminals who walk out of prison at will.
Get a clue people, can you not wake from your slumber and simply open your eyes? The government cannot protect you or the ones you love - it's up to you do that!
That's why every home should have a gun. At least one.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
The Independent: Helen and Sylvia, the new face of terrorism
We're all terrorists now.
See my letter to my Member of Parliament entitled, New Labour Police State.
Small Arms and Light Weapons: Making the UN Programme of Action work
A revealing piece. By way of justifying any statements of purported fact it starts with the tired old rhetorical trick of argument by anecdote and eventually makes it to argument by assertion.
The article is a clear exposition of how so-called "international law" is intended to do an end run around national government, local political accountability, and national constitutional guarantees of fundamental human rights.
The "human rights" advocated by the UN and its NGOs bear only coincidental similarity to the rights recognised in the common law and in British constitutional documents like Magna Carta and Bill of Rights 1688.
Notice the fact that the Brazilians claimed back their right to self-defence is waved off, without any supporting evidence, as a protest vote against government economic policies and nothing todo with RKBA.
The agenda of these so-called NGOs, who are in reality almost entirely funded by governments unless they are lobbying bodies for a cartel of business interests, is to rob you not only of your ability to defend yourself but also of any ability to have any effective say in the matter.
The American National Rifle Association is practically unique amongst NGOs in being largely funded by the subscriptions from small businesses and millions of individual American citizens.
Either a country can control its borders or it can't. If it can then it doesn't matter what's happening next door. If it can't then history amply demonstrates that it's ridiculous to imagine international bodies are up to the job of organising anything for the benefit of anyone other than the cartel of international banking interests. (Then again, whether a country's government chooses to control its borders is another issue.)
See "More deadly U.N. issues" by Dave Kopel, Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen for a dose of reality.
BBC News: Summer knives amnesty announced
Nope, it's not April Fool's Day yet but the Establishment is having a laugh anyway. Pointy stick amnesty coming real soon.
Meantime it's politically convenient to have recorded violent crime as lower - Violence Down Amid Pub Law Change. The coldest winter months for decades certainly helped put a crimp on carousal in public spaces.
Taking the two articles together that's an "11% fall" in October-December after a "4% rise" previously in July-September. Time to revisit your stats books and the original data perhaps? (Are even BBC journalists really that stupid they can believe government statistics, or are we supposed to be that stupid?)
BBC News: Italy approves self-defence law
It appears that there are at least some Europeans with enough cojones to emulate the way Brazilians claimed back their right to self-defence.
The BBC report, predictably, re-iterates the tired old "blood will run in the streets" nonsense that is invariably trotted out at any suggestion of civilians defending themselves.
Meantime, the UK Government doesn't like the crime figures so they're thinking of changing them.
The Times: Gun ban 'damaging Olympic hopes'
Now that Britain's Olympic bid has succeeded it's hard to see why this is deemed newsworthy.
An interesting factoid not mentioned is that Malcolm Cooper was the designer of the highly successful Accuracy International L96 Rifle as used by the British Army and many other armies and police units worldwide. It's hard to imagine that civilian shooting will, or can, make any significant contribution now or in the future to the defence of the realm after the highly effective civilian disarmament campaign run by the British Establishment against its own population.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
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2005

BBC News: Personal security dominates Brazil poll
It seems Brazilians aren't as lame as Britoids and can act in the belief that they and the majority of their fellow citizens are responsible adults capable of making important choices in their own lives - the public resoundingly rejected unilateral civilian disarmament.
The BBC exposes its anti-gun bias by parroting the transparently bogus statistics regarding the Brazilian gun amnesty put forward by the anti-gun forces. Clearly Brazilians are rather more sophisticated in their analysis than BBC journalists - not difficult to imagine.
This, via email, from a Lawyer in Rio,
"I'm sure these numbers are doctored. Every governor changes the way statistics are produced to suit his own aim of showing drops in high profile selected crimes. They exclude, for example, "robbery in public transport" from "general robbery" and then claim "general robbery" went down on their watch. That is why statistics in Brazil are unreliable. Didn't they claim that 90% plus of the victims who reacted to a mugging died or were shot? Isn't it obvious that when we successfully set a perp on the run we don't then go to the police station to file a report? So only the unsuccessful reactions make statistics…"
The Sunday Times: Scotland tops world league for violent crime
Obviously "our" Government "adjusts" its statistics to its purposes; there is no clear source of data that isn't tainted by political direction. The UN is a highly politicized organisation but they don't have any obvious axe to grind that would suggest they somehow treated Scotland unfairly in this report.
Whatever the UN report actually purports to represent it's not encouraging for those who claim that disarming the law-abiding is the way to reduce violence in a community.
Scottish politicians have responded, predictably, by promising to ban some new things and ban the old things some more.
BBC News: MPs 'must review shooting policy'
Not "gun-control" but the propensity of the UK Police to shoot first and try not to ask questions afterwards.
"The IPCC is investigating the shooting. On Friday, it announced it was also investigating leaks to the media about details of its inquiry."
"Those details appeared to contradict some of the initial police claims in the wake of the shooting."
I've commented before that the Police expect to be given a license to kill and this is more evidence of that attitude. Given that Israeli conscript soldiers manage to capture real suicide bombers alive, that dead men don't tell tales, and the "dead man's switch" is an old idea, I can only see this as gross stupidity and breathtaking incompetence on the part of the Police.
Even hardened SAS soldiers, not known for being shy about the use of lethal force, find the Metropolitan Police's gestapo-styled, balaclava-clad, thugs a bit hard to stomach - SAS trainers denounce `gung ho' armed police.
The Independent carried an interesting commentary on the situation in Oct 2005, Shot dead by police 30. Officers convicted 0.
What mystifies me, as ever, is why the public trusts the Police to protect them when "the authorities" are manifestly incapable of doing any such thing - in fact are much more likely to be a part of the problem than anything to do with the solution - see, "More deadly U.N. issues" by Dave Kopel, Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen.
Crime in England and Wales 2004/2005
Produced by the Home Office research development statistics (Home Office Statistical Bulletin 11/05) published July 2005.
Gun Control: Examining the 2005 FBI Crime Statistics by Howard Nemerov, is an interesting dissection of supposedly comparable American statistics.
BBC News: Crime bill targets replica guns
A grab-bag of various authoritarian measures, a Bill of fifty or so pages of the same old nonsense from the same old people.
Bans on various types of replica guns have been brought in periodically with much self-congratulation on the part of the chattering classes. The UK media establishment fails to question why banning more and more things leads to the requirement to ban even more things rather than "solving" the underlying "problem."
As various commentators have remarked, bans on pointy sticks can't be far away at this rate.
The British disease - redoubling your efforts and looking even more foolish - in full song, as ever.
BBC News: Doctors' kitchen knives ban call
I've said it before and no doubt I'll say it again: I just couldn't make this stuff up, it's too crazy.
How often is it necessary to point out that the problem is the people not the things. Banning knives, or air guns, or whatever else it is this week will not stop people using tools to kill or injure or other people. Get a clue!
BBC News: Mothers march against gun crime
Banning handguns isn't enough: more things need to be banned some more, apparently.
Liberals' Total Focus On Guns Is Misguided
In Canada (of all places) a politician who has a clue about the "gun control" issue. Sadly, no sign of anything like that on this side of the Atlantic.
Why parliament will not restore the householders' right to self-defence
Quality article by Joyce Lee Malcolm. Though I can't see why she thinks the public is likely (or even able) to do anything constructive. It's certainly not clear to me that public opinion in reality plays any part in informing Tony Blair's policies, for all the media hype to the contrary. And the Tory Party, who in any case are currently led by the guy who banned handguns in the first place, are in no position to win an election in the foreseeable future - as if they would be any different.
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2004

BBC News: Met boss backs attacking burglars
Original report in The Daily Telegraph Time to let people kill burglars in their homes, says Met chief. Specifically mentioning he doesn't want guns involved. Somebody should mention that to the burglars perhaps.
A burglar is defined in English Law as a person who makes a forcible entry into a house after dark with intent to steal. It's an old common law tradition (derived from Biblical Law, see Exodus 22:2, KJV) that burglary represents an escalated threat of violence and justifies the use of lethal force by the householder.
Perhaps he's heard about the Scots Law on Hamesucken, killing of a house-breaker
It's not clear to me what Sir John Stevens is saying about self-defence in general.
I find it hard to see how you can properly defend yourself without effective weapons, i.e. firearms, to do so.
BBC News: More police join firearms protest
My take: we plebs are penalised heavily for attempting to defend ourselves, but the Police expect to be given a license to kill.
The government, realising you can't operate a police state - oops, I mean a modern liberal democracy - without jackbooted thugs with assault rifles, has done a deal: Met police call off gun protest
Allowing policemen to get away with murder makes us all safer, apparently.
BBC News: Gun crime figures show fresh rise
"No amount of government spin will hide the fact that violent crime is out of control. We now have record levels of gun crime, rocketing sex offences, a further 14% increase in violent crime and overall crime is nearly 750,000 higher than 1998."
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis
You'd hope gun fatalities would be in decline with all the money being pumped into the NHS.
BBC News: Crime reduction strategy 'flawed'
"There are 'significant flaws' in the principles behind the government's crime reduction strategy, according to a report by an independent think-tank."
For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.
BBC News: Police chief sorry for 999 delay
Don't worry, the police will protect you.
Police Abandon 12-Year-Old Child As Father Is Arrested
The Canadian Police move on owners of unregistered firearms in September 2004.
For more background, see CBC News: Protest leader arrested on Parliament Hill
Canadian gun owners seem to have bit more nerve than their British counterparts in protesting unreasonable laws.
And read the Gallant and Eisen article, "Canada: Lies To The North Of Us".
BBC News: Violent crime figures rise by 12%
What you measure is what you get. Crime is up…No, crime is down…No, crime is up…No, crime is down…No, crime is up…
Economist.com: Sloppy stats shame science
"What is published in scientific journals may not be as true as it should be" - seems the people at the The Economist buy into the post-modern theory that "truth" has varying degrees depending on circumstance.
Why fact-checking is important to you especially when you're dealing with "the experts."
The Economist article calls into question people who are inadvertently making statistical mistakes. However, in the "gun control" debate (particularly on the 'anti' side) there's plenty of deliberate falsification (not only of data, but also by the use of inappropriate statistical techniques) and misrepresentation.
Caveat lector.
You might like to try…
John Brignell's Numberwatch
Steve Milloy's Junk Science Homepage
BBC News: Gun legislation 'faces overhaul'
"There is statistical evidence that firearms incidents are increasing, and we should not be complacent"
Assistant Inspector of Constabulary Tim Hollis
The authorities feel there is the need to ban guns some more. The word is that further restrictions on shot gun ownership are waiting in the wings for a propitious moment.
"We need to prevent guns getting into the wrong hands while allowing legitimate shooters to pursue their sport without danger to public safety"
Home Office minister Caroline Flint
What exactly is a "legitimate shooter" pray tell, when more and more types of guns and gun-like things get banned with every passing decade?
Yes Virginia, these people are as crazy as they seem.
See also my 2003 article, Controls on Replica Guns.
The Home Office produced, Controls on Firearms Consultation, a "consultation" document.
Crime in England and Wales 2002/2003: Supplementary Volume 1: Homicide and Gun Crime 01/04 [PDF]
"Gun crime" in England and Wales according to the Home Office.
As per usual, firearms-related crime is highest in major metropolitan areas - least legal guns and most policemen - and lowest where there is highest legal gun ownership and fewer policemen.
CCRKBA Takes Gun Rights Battle International, Opens Office in London
An American pro-gun group, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), thinks the time is right to open a London office.
London is a world city not representative of the rest of the UK but since Parliament is there it's where the action is as regards the law.
The Guardian: Anger over Tory MP's gun gaffe
In which we see that the Dunblane tragedy continues to be invoked during media posturing re Britain's "gun laws."
Also see The Guardian report: Death in Woolwich - "Guns are becoming ever more common in British cities, and rates of shootings and murders are spiralling."
The Guardian: Gun crime sparks body vest rethink
Seems the Metropolitan police are worried that drive-by shootings are becoming fashionable in London.
BBC News: Martin backers' law bid 'to fail'
In a BBC Radio poll of 26,000 people, the use of lethal force against an unwanted intruder in the home was the favoured choice of a large proportion. Those people appreciate that someone who is prepared to break into an occupied dwelling is likely to be prepared to engage in lethal violence. Our Right Honourable leaders don't approve of people defending themselves however - usually claiming their absurd belief is that the public are valuing property over life, which is not the issue. It's about the right to defend yourself against those who intend to do you harm.
What really puzzles me is that the great British public doesn't understand the difference between Direct Democracy and Representative Democracy and think they have a say in things in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
See "The truth about gun control" [PDF 117K] by John Johnson, a supporter of Tony Martin and RKBA.
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2003

BBC News: Firearm crime continues to rise
Still no explanation from the Home Office as to why the "small weapons" ban doesn't deal with this.
BBC News: Arms fair policing attacked
Europe's largest arms fair is held in London Docklands.
All those automatic weapons drugs gangs use come from somewhere: as the second largest arms exporter in world the UK is surely doing its bit.
What do you know, representatives from Syria - fingered by Dubya as sponsors of terror - have been invited to the arms fair.
It's protesting against arms sales that makes you a terrorist it seems: some demonstrators were arrested under anti-terrorism legislation.
Hypocrisy doesn't even begin to cover it.
The Scotsman: Concern over guns amid rise in sale of firearms
Although the number of holders of firearms licenses is falling, this hardcore of gun nuts are holding larger numbers of weapons. Presumably a stop will be put to that now it's been noticed. The Scotsman (displaying their usual "high standards of journalism") originally got this report wrong by claiming the official statistics represented handguns rather than firearms, having forgotten that handguns ("small weapons") were prohibited in Scotland in 1997. They printed a (small) notice of retraction in the next day's issue.
Somehow illegally-carried knives are something to do with this too, at least in the febrile minds of The Scotsman reporters. But I guess that's as logical as imagining legally-held firearms relate to criminal usage of firearms without any evidence to show that to be the case. And they're too feeble-minded to question the proposition that "successful policing" means more criminals.
BBC News: Fight on crime 'being lost'
Even after the figures have been "adjusted" violent crime is shown as being up. The government is, of course, blaming everyone and everything but themselves.
Thought Crimes and the British Gestapo
The shocking tale of a British gun-owner, his wife, and the British Police State.
The Scotsman: Robertson sues over Dunblane killer allegations
When a UK politician sues for libel you know you're on to something.
If I posted a fraction of the allegations I receive of satan worshipping paedophile rings with top politicians as members…there probably wouldn't be space for much else on the server.
Quite apart from the Dunblane angle, an interesting test case for law and the Internet.
See also the discussion group, http://groups.msn.com/DunblaneInquiry
The Observer: The uncovered poll
An Observer/ICM poll on public attitudes to crime in Britain. Fascinating that, in spite of relentless anti-gun propaganda from the British media, as high as 25% would have a gun for self-defence if it were legal in the UK (which currently it certainly isn't).
This was published as part of The Observer's "Crime Uncovered" reporting. The accompanying editorial claims that public perception is wrong that crime is up but official statistics saying crime is down are right. Heaven forefend: who are we lowly peasants to be stupid enough to believe our lying eyes?!! - even given that the Police fake crime stats.
See They have no guns - so they have a lot of crime by Dr Paul Gallant and Dr Joanne Eisen.
Meantime, the UK Government is planning to improve legal protection for burglars and violent criminals going about their business…
Government lawyers say burglars 'need protection'
An article in The Daily Mirror confirms that the people aren't convinced by cooked-up figures: Britain a Nation in Fear of Thugs and Thieves.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
"Gun Ownership and Human Rights" [PDF 200K]
David B. Kopel, Joanne D. Eisen, and Paul Gallant, "Gun Ownership and Human Rights," The Brown Journal of World Affairs, Winter/Spring 2003 - Volume IX, Issue 2.
"The previous issue of the Brown Journal of World Affairs (Volume IX, Issue 1) contained a collection of articles arguing for dramatically reducing the numbers of small arms and light weapons (SALW) in the hands of 'non-state actors.' In this article, we suggest that such a reduction is neither realistic nor desirable. Should the reduction project succeed, the result might well be a substantial increase in mortality."
BBC News: Firearms amnesty launched
This time in Scotland - aren't people tired of this kind of bs propaganda yet?
News from Iraq is that UK troops are setting up a gun amnesty in Basra. It's what occupying forces do, clearly. And obviously it's such a good idea to make yourself defenceless in the face of marauding gangs of looters.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
BBC News: Dunblane reports made public
Or rather, a token few are made public. I tend to go with the stupidity rather than malice explanation for the secrecy surrounding the Dunblane documents. The complete incompetence of the various authorities in dealings with Hamilton is clear from what is already public knowledge, in any case.
Excessive secrecy has long been a major flaw (from the standpoint of the average joe public) in the British system of government.
BBC News: Gun amnesty details announced
It seems some people haven't noticed handguns were banned in the UK in 1997. I'm sure as soon as they realise they'll hand them in straight away.
Don't you feel so much safer already?
BSSC Snubs US NRA
Yet more evidence, if that were needed, that the British Shooting Sports Council (BSSC) is part of the problem, not part of the solution. BSSC is not even representative of the shooting public let alone the British public in general.
BBC News: Doctors under fire over gun crime
"Doctors are not agents of the police and it would be wrong to put calling the police before the needs of their patient."
I can't see that idea lasting for much longer, what with "The War Against Terror" (TWAT).
And yet another reason to view Government statistics with scepticism.
National Post: The guns are in Britain despite gun control
The Canadians aren't exactly shy about banning guns but at least there is some genuine debate about it their newspapers.
The Guardian: Parole denied to farmer jailed for killing burglar
A close friend of Martin's, Richard Portham, said: "He told me he had seen one of the reports from a probation officer who said he shouldn't get released because he was a danger to burglars."
I guess my uncle in Texas wouldn't understand: he has a sign nailed to his garden wall that says "Trespassers will be shot" and his M1 Garand (my favourite rifle, I imagine it was at Iwo Jima) under the bed - so far it's worked for him.
Fri 9 May 2003: Martin stays in prison to save burglars
Fri 13 Jun 2003: Shot burglar wins right to sue Martin
Sat 26 Jul 2003: Police watch Martin home
See "The truth about gun control" [PDF 117K] by John Johnson, a supporter of Tony Martin and RKBA.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
BBC News: Should the police be armed?
A BBC "vox pop." This is my favourite…
"I was under the impression that the police were armed already. Perhaps that's just because I work in the City."
Russ, London, UK
I don't approve arming the police while private citizens have no right to self-defence.
BBC News: Why Britain needs more guns
BBC news reviewing Joyce L Malcolm? I definitely woke up in bizarro world today. I think they posted this to fool American readers of the BBC website into thinking there's some kind of RKBA debate going on in the UK. There isn't. Hell will freeze over before any remotely electable UK politician backs RKBA.
Lessons of History: Firearms Regulation and the Reduction of Crime by Joyce Lee Malcolm. [PDF 111K]
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
BBC News: Guns amnesty agreed at summit
Quite why gangsters will suddenly see the light and hand in their guns is beyond me, but I guess "something must be done."
BBC News: Gun crime soars by 35%
Of course, since Police fake crime stats we can only wonder as to what the real situation is. Given that the murder rate is at the highest level ever recorded I think it's safe to infer that the increase in gun crime isn't a matter of changes in reporting methods or statistical analysis.
See They have no guns - so they have a lot of crime by Dr Paul Gallant and Dr Joanne Eisen.
BBC News: New controls on replica guns
From this article it can be seen the various political parties are in step on "gun control" and concerned that more stuff should be banned.
New laws banning the sale, possession and importation of some types of air guns are due to be announced shortly.
You can read my article, Controls on Replica Guns, if you want to try and make some sense of all this.
Steve Kendrick's article, "Another day, another knee jerks…", contains further useful information and comment.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
BBC News: Two teenage girls shot dead
The police have said little substantive but have indicated it does not involve "terrorism" but is linked with Birmingham's gang culture and that the girls were bystanders caught as collateral damage in a gunfight. Radio and TV news reports have talked of a "bullet-riddled" car and large quantities of empty cartridge cases. It's believed that at least one automatic weapon was involved. Police say that witnesses are frightened to come forward for fear of reprisals. How I laughed at Morris's misquotation of Edmund Burke, I hope it was irony on his part but I fear it's just stupidity. Here's a real quote for him (and you):
"It is an advantage to all narrow wisdom and narrow morals that their maxims have a plausible air; and, on a cursory view, appear equal to first principles. They are light and portable. They are as current as copper coin; and about as valuable. They serve equally the first capacities and the lowest; and they are, at least, as useful to the worst men as to the best. Of this stamp is the cant of not man, but measures; a sort of charm by which many people get loose from every honourable engagement."
Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the cause of the present discontents, 1770. In The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, edited by Henry Froude, Oxford University Press, 1909, Volume 2, page 83.
The witnesses are caught between a rock and a hard place: on the one hand they have the gangsters with machineguns who will kill them if they speak out, and on the other they have the policemen with machineguns who are taking bribes from the gangsters to turn a blind eye to the drug-dealing…
"Because of the huge explosion in organised crime and drugs money we've now got police officers who can take bribes of £50,000 or £80,000 to subvert an individual job or series of jobs or who are prepared to recycle drugs for significant profit."
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon, The Guardian, 29 Jan 1998 (forced to comment on incontrovertible evidence of police corruption).
Not an auspicious way for Birmingham to start the New Year. Sadly this type of incident is becoming ever more commonplace in modern Britain's metropolitan areas.
Judging by commentary in the UK media it looks likely to be used as an excuse to promote further "gun control", including pushing UN efforts to "internationalise" gun control. Of course, automatic weapons used in crime in actual fact originate from government armouries (well, mostly, given how easy they are to make) so it's clear that disarming law-abiding private citizens isn't going to interfere with gang warfare using military weapons.
Apparently it's not rock n' roll, the Devil's music is rap. Maybe they've been playing the records backwards. I've said it before and no doubt I'll say it again, I couldn't make this stuff up, it's just too crazy.
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2002

BBC News: New Year gun amnesty planned
"Figures due out next month are expected to reveal that record numbers of offences are being committed using guns."
More gun bans for the new year. More of the same with more of the same result.
BBC News: More armed police in London
"Illegal use of firearms rose by 20% this year compared to 2001."
Other Metropolitan areas in the UK have seen similar increases in both firearms crime and the numbers of armed police deployed. Policemen with holstered Glock Model 17 9mm pistols are becoming a familiar sight for more and more British subjects.
BBC News: Police spokesman calls for routine arming of police
"We must have the ultimate protection of a firearm to protect not only society but ourselves."
Norman Brennan
If only because they're so busy preventing me from protecting myself perhaps? I say no to routine arming of the police unless or until the right to keep and arms for citizens is recognised. The police should not have rights and liberties a citizen doesn't have, which they surely do now. (If you don't like it, get a different job.)
Note Brennan's words: the duty of the police is protect public order not to protect you, the individual. It's up to you to do that.
It's quite simple - because they're actively disarming the law-abiding general public the British police are part of the problem, not part of the solution. See Richard Munday's essay "Bill of Rights" from 1996 for analysis of the problematic nature of the British Parliamentary system.
"More deadly U.N. issues" by Dave Kopel, Paul Gallant & Joanne Eisen explains why I don't like the idea of only the police and military having guns. They're the ones who carry out the genocide! If you think "it couldn't happen here" you'd better start reading your history books.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
In Praise of Chaos
What I think the "Maryland sniper" tells me about "gun control" - or how I learned to stop worrying and love the gun.
I have to admit, however, that I'm not optimistic as to the likelihood of the required systemic change in political beliefs on the part of the public and political classes actually coming about. People in Britain seem minded to reward the multifarious and manifest government incompetence by agreeing to pay more taxes. Go figure.
Sunday Times: "Murder rate soars to highest for a century"
David Leppard and Rachel Dobson, 13 Oct 2002.
"Britain's murder rate has risen to its highest level since records began 100 years ago, undermining claims by ministers that they have got violent crime under control."
You'd think it's not exactly a vindication of the UK's confiscatory "gun control" policy and the handgun ban…
"Commander Andy Baker, who is in charge of more than 900 detectives investigating all murders in London, blamed drugs and a greater availability of guns."
Murder rates in America, where gun purchases saw a boom after 9/11, have fallen since 1995 as have those of France and Germany.
Given how hard the Government works to massage these figures downwards, particularly you'd think right now with opinion polls reporting public unease about violent crime, you've got to wonder just how bad the real figures really are. Check out my essay about UK homicide statistics written in 1996. (The suicide rate is also under scrutiny so it's going to be harder to hide murder in the suicide figures in future.)
Mike Burke's April 2000 essay on "Reasonable Force" seems even more pertinent today. The truth is timeless.
It's official that the prisons are full already, the UK imprisons more people per capita than any other European country, so some new thinking is long overdue. I say it's long overdue to give the guns back to the people. Tony Blair gave up on his Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament belief in unilateral nuclear disarmament but he won't end unilateral disarmament of the British public.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
FOX News: Lessons From History
A new book from historian Joyce Malcolm, published by Harvard University Press, has some interesting things to say about "gun control" in England seen from a US perspective.
Also reviewed at TCS :: Europe: British History Lessons
The level of scholarship on the other side of the debate is somewhat in question at the moment: Author of Gun History Quits After Panel Faults Research (free registration).
Scotland on Sunday: Dunblane handgun ban under review
My feeling is that the powers-that-be are getting nervous at the fact that the right to keep and bear arms is (finally) getting some press. The rise in violent crime in general and gun crime in particular spite of a handgun ban allied to the legal opposition to self-defence of any kind is making the "guns/self-defence causes a violent culture" nonsense which is the official line look blatantly absurd.
A few token "legal" handguns will always come in handy as a scapegoat to explain why a gun ban doesn't work, and this (empty) posturing will take the public debate away from right to keep and bear arms and firmly into all the "sporting use" nonsense.
Guns are weapons. Get over it.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
BBC News: Gun and drug crimes threaten UK
"Anyone who wishes to obtain a firearm will have little difficulty in doing so whether genuine, reactivated, modified or replica."
National Criminal Intelligence Service report
See also, BBC News: Gun crime
The Independent: Britain is now the crime capital of the West
And we have the most feared football hooligans in Europe.
Clearly banning some more things will deemed to be the "solution". That and some serious statistical tomfoolery.
BBC News: UK Police given license to kill
(OK, so that wasn't the title they gave it.)
What this news report doesn't make clear is that they shot the unarmed man in the back.
This case still not resolved in mid-2005, BBC News: Met officers held in murder probe. But, as expected, in the fullness of time - No penalty for gun death officers.
When policemen can get away with executions like this with no legal consequences they clearly have license to gun down anyone, anytime. It's not the first such incident and it's safe to say it won't be the last…
Black and in possession of a cigarette lighter…
Shot man was 'lovely, friendly person'
Waving an air rifle around in a threatening manner…
Man shot by police 'threatened staff'
Edinburgh Evening News: Police fake crime stats
No shit Sherlock. Does any thinking person really ever believe what agents of the government tell them? So many important cases have turned out to involve faked evidence for instance in the case of the Lockerbie bombing, let alone in numerious of the trials of "Irish terrorists."
Notice the Police deflate the violent crime figures for attacks on private citizens but inflate the figures for attacks on policemen.
See They have no guns - so they have a lot of crime by Dr Paul Gallant and Dr Joanne Eisen.
As the man almost said, lies, damn lies and then what policemen tell you. See my essay about UK homicide statistics written in 1996.
It's great how democracy functions so well with such a fully-informed public.
I can attest from living there that Edinburgh is quite a lively place…
Violent crimes rocket in the capital
3 held after knife terror on street
Police probe after Princes Street stabbing
Some reports from The Daily Telegraph
Mugger shoots girl, 19, for her mobile
Police fear crime explosion as school-age muggers graduate to guns
Clearly we're so much safer after all those guns were banned, in spite of the papers being full of this stuff and the occasional drive-by-shooting…but wait, have I slipped into a parallel universe…
If the state fails us, we must defend ourselves by By Simon Heffer (Filed: 24/feb/2002).
Can it really be an opinion piece on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in a major UK newspaper!
I think I can relax, apparently the real answer is to turn Britain into a police state…
Top lawyer warns of 'police state'
Public 'back police' in justice row
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
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2000

BBC News: Gunmen free prisoners from British court
Two gunman walk into East Berkshire Magistrates Court in Slough, England, fire shots, pistol-whip a policeman and escape with two men who were on trial.
Fortunately no-one was killed. I doubt any of the police or security officers were armed with anything more than batons and CS spray.
BBC News: UK Gun laws to be "tightened"
In true British tradition, if at first you don't succeed, redouble your efforts and look even more foolish.
BBC News: UK Gun Laws not tough enough according to MPs
It seems cats are in great danger due to crazed Britoids wielding "lethal" air guns so "something must be done."
I just couldn't make this stuff up.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Getting Away With Murder
Steven Milloy of The Junk Science Homepage sets us straight.
BBC Radio News is, as I type, castigating the American press because the death of Kayla Rolland is front-page news in the UK but not in the US. That is indeed a revealing fact: the UK press and the Establishment are still trying to justify the UK gun ban by reference to events in America. Where's the front-page treatment of the children killed by car airbags…killed by prescription drugs…killed by "speeding" motorists…by any number of rather more mundane but arguably "preventable" circumstance?
It's never about facts, it's always about propaganda.
And it isn't about "gun control" - except where that means gun ban.
Here's a question for you all: what if the boy had, instead of a gun, taken a packet of drugs from the crack-house he lived in and one or some of his classmates had died because of experimenting with those? Or is that impossible because drugs are banned?
BBC News: "MP's suicide comments upset farmers"
"The main reason why there's a large number of suicides among farmers is because they have shotguns handy."
Labour MP Paul Flynn
A truly awesome display of ignorance, stupidity and insensitivity. In fact just what you'd expect from those who govern Britain today.
Flynn should check out…
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "When it Comes to Suicide, Gun Control is Not the Answer" or
The July 1998 Editorial of The Australian Shooters Journal
…and get a clue.
I for one would like to shake him warmly by the throat - but I suspect it will be a long queue.
BBC News: "Street crime surges"
We're so much safer without all those banned handguns.
See my intro to the article "Illegal Guns Flood Britain" taken from The Times.
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1999

JPFO Interview of Dr David Schiller
Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership put forward a solution to school shootings.
Backed up by the study Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws: Contrasting Private and Public Law Enforcement by John R Lott Jr and William M Landes. [PDF 200K]
The article "No Guns, No Press" by Jeff Jacoby exposes the real reason for the press hysteria.
Top BBC TV Personality Jill Dando murdered at her home in London
Shot once in the head by thus far unidentified assailant who is reported to have used a 9mm handgun.
BBC News reports without an explanation of why the UK gun ban didn't prevent this.
Meanwhile, the bomb-crazy UK tabloids are claiming a "Serb assassin" did it. And they say the Internet is a hotbed of crazy conspiracy theories!
BBC News Apr 02: Update on the Dando murder.
There's no sign that this sorry affair will ever be resolved to anyone's satisfaction.
Back to square one for police after their 'soft target' is freed (The Independent, 2008).
Violence is not the answer kids, so let's bomb the Serbs some more
15 dead after Colorado school gun & bomb killing spree.
More political opportunism from anti-gunners, with the usual suspects being trotted out for the breakdown of American "civil society" - guns are to blame (that pesky US Constitution and Bill of Rights, you'd think they'd have repealed that by now, after all they've had 200 years to do it) and of course free speech on the Internet - all that bomb-making information, and neo-nazi propaganda.
The politicians "feel our pain." That's a comfort.
It's odd how Tony Blair thinks it's bad to believe in karma, but animism is fine - you can blame inanimate objects for motivating a person's behaviour.
Strangely, shootings in the UK receive what is in comparison limited news-coverage: April 23rd's shooting spree in Manchester involving a high-speed car chase, armed police, and the wounding of five innocent bystanders (and of course banned guns including a Kalashnikov) doesn't make a dent in the prominent position of the Colorado shootings on the BBC News website front page on the day after - it's well down the page amidst the also rans whilst Colorado features prominently as a headline. I guess even UK journos aren't stupid enough to claim banning things that are already banned will help.
And news of a "copycat" shooting at a school in Alberta, Canada: "Canada prides itself on having stringent gun control laws…"
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1998

An Appraisal of the Technologies of Political Control
If you don't think this is a good argument for the right to keep and bear arms then brain death has set in.
United Nations Survey Smashes Anti-gun Argument
The July 1998 Editorial of The Australian Shooters Journal exposes the flaws in the anti-gunners' utilitarian arguments.
Prozac nation
Article from The Vigo Examiner suggesting that the use of Prozac could have a crucial part to play in homicidal shootings.
By 2005 this is still under debate with no firm conclusion: The Prozac Paradox. Why antidepressants may exacerbate depression and anxiety in some kids and teens.
The Scotsman letters page publication
My whingeing about UK media bias gets a public airing in a Scottish daily newspaper.
Canadian Press Report on Third ICVS
Worthy article from Canada penned by Lorne Gunter.
My letter re the Jonesboro shootings
The Scotsman sometimes publishes my letters but didn't like this one, so you decide.
Police report suppressed
The Scotsman with evidence that government "damage limitation" immediately moved into action to deflect attention from police incompetence.
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1997

Shot gun bans to follow
Report from The Scotsman of 4 November 1997, quoting a Home Affairs minister and the plans for further "gun control" in Britain.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Anti-gun campaigners discover cap-and-ball revolvers
One of the UK's most notorious tabloids, The Sun, wants more guns banned.
Firearms bans to continue
This article from The Scotsman confirms that the Scottish Office and the Home Office are intending to go ahead with further gun bans.
They may use "administrative" measures rather than further primary legislation: the law gives the Police and Secretary of State extremely wide-ranging discretionary powers.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Anti-gun campaigners target lever action rifles
So you thought you'd buy a lever-gun instead?
"The gun that won the West," nowadays known as "The Brooklyn Special," takes the heat from the anti-gun crowd in the run-up to new legislation banning further classes of firearms.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Further gun ban in the pipeline
A report from the UK broadsheet newspaper The Independent, confirms that Labour intend to ban most rifles.
Check out the Labour Party's "Control of Guns" document.
Since confirmed in a letter (4 Aug 1997) from the Scottish Office which has come to my attention.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Gun hand-in commenced on July 1st 1997
With orders from the Home Office that owners had three months from July 1st to surrender their centre-fire handguns at police stations.
This was expected to gather about 160,000 guns - although all (legal) guns are individually registered to their owners, no official figures for the number on certificates are available.
.22 handguns were included in the hand-in: to receive compensation (at some unspecified future date) the .22 must have been handed-in during the July to October period.
Letters to my MP re Bill of Rights 1688
I think it's safe to say we're not going to agree on this.
See also the previous, Letters to my MP.
For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html
Labour Party policy statement (May 13 1997)
Tony Blair, the Labour Prime Minister, gave his personal support to the banning of .22 handguns.
UK Labour Party had gained a 177 seat (overwhelming) majority in Parliament.
Check out the Labour Party's "Control of Guns" document.
The new government promptly finished the Torys' job by the banning of .22 handguns (centre-fire handguns already prohibited by the Torys).
"Snowdrop" becomes "The Gun Control Network"
The anti-gunners pass on the torch. As if anyone was going to vote Tory anyhow! Article from the Daily Mail.
See my take on the Gun Control Network and their website.
Albanian Anarchy
Military weapons, ammunition and explosives entering the European black market via diversion from the vast stocks of military and police weapons is one of the reasons why restrictions on civilian ownership aren't diminishing the availability of weapons and ammunition to criminals and terrorists.
A competent car mechanic can make a submachinegun. Guns were made in Nazi-occupied Europe by resistance forces in spite of the best efforts of the Gestapo. Guns are made in the third world from scrap metal using hand tools.
Read this Financial Times article about the illegal manufacture of firearms in the Philippines.
Or if you've some idle moments you can make a zip gun.
Labour Party to ban beer glasses
No, this is not a joke - or at least, they're serious about it.
The latest information I have from someone in the licensed trade is that the measure is still under consideration (19 Jul 1997).
US National Rifle Association goes global
With nearly three million members in the USA, the NRA - "America's oldest civil rights organization" - becomes international. Report from the New York Times.
Holy Moses! The 72-year-old actor Charlton Heston voted First Vice President of the NRA.
Read Mr Heston's brilliant speech given at the National Press Club in Washington.
"Snowdrop" anti-gun ad campaign in run-up to general election
There's no shortage of money or resources in the 'anti' camp.
Bill to ban centre-fire handguns is made law
The Tory Government Bill to prohibit civilians from owning handguns was given Royal Assent on February 27 1997.
Various shooting groups are taking the legislative "fight" to the European courts to challenge the validity of the law.
The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 is on-line at the TSO webserver
Prince Philip's comments
Not noted for his tact and charm, the Prince is said to have opined during a visit to Scotland that the village of Methil was "a right dump".
Pistol shooting in the south of France
You can keep shooting if you leave Britain to do it. Not if the UN have their way of course…
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1996

Offer of Help from Norway
This is a viable option: I know of guns having been shipped to Norway.
Andrew Walls kindly sent a review of Norwegian gun law that many will find interesting.
Men or Boys? By Peter Brookesmith
An article from Guns & Shooting Magazine of March 1996, written before the Dunblane Massacre of 13 March 1996. An excellent analysis of the sorry state of British shooting and how the "the shooting community" has lost sight of the real picture.
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Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine. Documentary or Fiction?
by David T. Hardy
Bowling Truths
by Dave Kopel
"The documentary maker exists in the same parallel universe inhabited by the Iraqi information minister"
Michael Moore's "documentary" about American culture has received rave reviews in the UK. The essays referenced above show why Moore's work is certainly not a documentary in the accepted sense.
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The Lott & Mustard Study

Crime, Deterrence, and Right-To-Carry Concealed Handguns [PDF 315K]
The definitive study on the effects on crime in the USA of the carrying of concealed weapons by law-abiding citizens.
Lott's refutation of Black's & Nagin's critique of Crime, Deterrence,… [PDF 189K]
Goodbye Dodge City - Dr Paul Gallant and Dr Joan Eisen review criticism of Lott's study.
Transcript of an interview with John R Lott Jr.
Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings, and Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws: Contrasting Private and Public Law Enforcement by John R Lott Jr and William M Landes. [PDF 200K]
The Volokh Conspiracy on the Lott v Levitt controversy.
John Lott's Website.
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Derek Bernard's Firearms Law List

A selection of postings from this email list…
17 Jan 2012, re: Bureaucracy and effectiveness are not the same thing [PDF 72K]
Derek writes: 'Earlier this month I received a copy of a lengthy, 2-page article in the "Southern Daily Echo," a regional newspaper in southern England, in which a senior policeman was claiming that more police controls over who could have shotguns would reduce violent crime. These claims were associated with an incident on New Year's Day in which a Michael Atherton used a licensed shotgun to murder 3 women and commit suicide. I wrote this letter to the Editor.'
15 Jan 2011, re: UK - no defence against "mass killing" events [PDF 453K]
Derek writes: "In December 2010, the Home Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament held an Inquiry into the mass shootings by Derrick Bird in Cumbria the previous June. Caroline Lucas, MP, the Leader of the UK Green Party, recommended to a constituent that the UK's gun laws should be dramatically tightened. I wrote to Caroline Lucas and circulated my letter to my mailing list [see entry below]. A subscriber wrote to congratulate me on the letter, opining that it would have a beneficial effect on Ms. Lucas."
14 Jan 2011, re: Caroline Lucas, MP - UK Gun Laws should be much stricter [PDF 68K]
Derek writes: 'I have been sent a recent letter from a UK Parliament Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, to one of her constituents outlining her favoured gun control policies. Her proposals would be so destructive that I felt compelled to write to her.'
20 Aug 2010, re: Submission to the Inquiry into Firearms Control [PDF 253K]
Derek writes: 'On the 15th July the Home Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament announced an "Inquiry Into Firearms Controls", as a result of the multiple murders and shootings by Derrick Bird in June and Raoul Moat in July, in northern England. Submissions of not more than 2,500 words have been invited and must be provided by 27th August. Over the past 25 years or so I have made a number of submissions to various parliamentary/governmental agencies, both in the UK and elsewhere, regarding gun control legislation. Sometimes the submissions have been on specific aspects of a gun control law, sometimes, as in the present case, on the law as a whole. I have never received a considered, detailed response. Probably more significantly, the UK Home Office has an extraordinarily consistent 100+ year record of pursuing expensive and destructive strict gun control policies in the total absence of meaningful, published research. Will the present Inquiry be any different? Historical consistency suggests probably not. But those who believe that the Rule of Reason should apply to governmental activities, have a duty to try…'
7 Mar 2010, re: Washington DC More Dangerous than Iraq? [PDF 189K]
Derek debunks a viral Internet factoid.
11 Jan 2010, re: Gun Control Basics [PDF 237K]
Derek writes: 'I am often asked to briefly summarise "the situation." I have squeezed a new "Gun Control Basics" document onto one page. You will be the judge as to whether it has been a useful exercise or not.'
26 Aug 2009, re: The Human Right to Self-defence: Are individual rights in conflict with public safety? [PDF 49K]
A utilitarian answer based on the American experience of CCW laws.
[I believe "public safety" is just the convenient excuse governments use to justify reneging on their duty to protect individual rights. For me, the question is nonsensical - the individual is the public and the individual self-evidently requires the means for self-defence. -- Johnny]
11 May 2009, re: The Development of the British Faith in Strict Gun Control [PDF 116K]
A review of the sorry history of victim disarmament in Britain over the past hundred years.
1 Jun 2008, re: Irish Firearm Custody Order of August 1972 [PDF 34K]
Commentary on the effects of "gun control" in the Republic of Ireland.
19 Feb 2008, re: The New Zealand Arms Control Regime [PDF 166K]
Overview by Inspector Joe Green, Manager: Licensing and Vetting New Zealand Police.
16 Jan 2007, re: GUN CONTROL - Questions & Answers leaflet [PDF 41K]
01 Dec 2005, re: Does society really want to reduce rape? [PDF 155K]
31 Aug 2004, re: Home Office Consultation Exercise [PDF 108K]
14 Nov 2002, re: Gun Crime, does any policy work? [PDF 207K]
22 Feb 1999, re: Four questions re Firearms Amendment Act [PDF 138K]
If you wish to join Derek Bernard's Firearms Law List you should email,
Derek Bernard <DB@TSLjersey.com>
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Norman Basset Memorial Archive

Files from the Public Records Office, and the Record Office House of Lords, originally transcribed by Norman Basset. Norman has now moved on to explore The Dharma. We all remember him fondly, I'm sure.
Unlawful Drilling Act, 1819 ('The War Against Terror' goes back a long way):
Original 1819 version of Unlawful Drilling Act
Current statute version of Unlawful Drilling Act
The Gun Licence Act, 1870
Pistols Act, 1903
The Blackwell Report, 1918, Report of the Committee on the Control of Firearms
Firearms Act, 1920
Firearms and Imitation Firearms (Criminal Use) Act, 1933
Firearms Act, 1934
Firearms Act, 1936
Firearms Act, 1937 [PDF 254K]
Firearms Act, 1965 [PDF 71K]

The contemporary (in force) UK Firearms Acts on the Office of Public Sector Information website:

Firearms Act 1968 (c. 27) - nb: this is the consolidation and amendment Act with is the basis for current firearms law in Great Britain.
Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 (c. 45)
Firearms (Amendment) Act 1992 (c. 31)
Firearms (Amendment) Act 1994
The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997
Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997
A large number of Statutory Instruments also apply; refer to Office of Public Sector Information for more.

(Documents appearing as PDF files were originally transcribed by Mike Burke.)

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UK Bill of Rights, Claim of Right, 1688/9

The UK Bill of Rights 1688 transcribed from a House of Lords Record Office facsimile
PDF version [14K] of the Bill of Rights
On-line at the UK Statute Law Database: Bill of Rights (c.2)
Although the 1688 Act is still legally in force according to various authorities, the UK now has a new "Bill of Rights" (due to European Union aspirations, though of course it's a bill of entitlements not rights) which is clearly as worthless as this.
Scotland has its own version, Claim of Right Act 1689 (which is, of course, guaranteed by the Treaty of Union, 1707). It is clear when you read them that they're essentially the same document somewhat rephrased.
On-line at the UK Statute Law Database: Claim of Right Act 1689 (c. 28)
Richard Munday's essay "Bill of Rights"
Exercises a few interesting philosophical points. Unfortunately, the concept of the right to keep and bear arms seems to have been propagandised away in the UK. Munday re-visited the issue in his January 2005 article for the Sunday Telegraph, There's Only One Way To Protect Ourselves - And Here's The Proof, September 2007 for The Times, Wouldn't you feel safer with a gun? and December 2008 for The Times, If each of us carried a gun….
Joyce Lee Malcolm's 2002 article, Gun Control's Twisted Outcome, is a must-read.
The Lords to act on the Bill of Rights
(1997) Never happened, would have been very interesting though!
The Lords have decided to put their jobs before defending the British Constitution - so they're truly politicians after all.
Legal challenge using Bill of Rights by Mike Jay
John Hurst on the Bill of Rights looking for more information.
(1997) Came to nought as I anticipated, though to give Mike his due he did fight it through the courts.
Assert your RKBA!
I sent a form to my MP but of course heard nothing back.
The Shooting Foundation Manifesto
This was all I ever saw of the Shooting Foundation.
SAFE - Safety And Freedom for Everyone, UK pro-RKBA group.
Now defunct, as far as I know, after being subsumed into The Magna Carta Society
The Magna Carta Society.
Has a storied history, having been disbanded at least once due to infiltration by establishment operatives working to subvert its original aims. (But then, if you're making MI5 mad you know you're on to something.)
Be sure to read the post, Magna Carta Society Blog: The Reason for This Site.
Mike Burke's essay, "Reasonable Force" (for part two, the Oct 2008 update, see below).
Mike's Fight against UK gun laws followed this thinking.
My Letters to my MP re Bill of Rights 1688 flew this argument, which as you can see from the exchange got short-shrift from the legally trained Alistair Darling, MP.
Mike Burke's appeal in the High Court re the Bill of Rights 1688, [1999] EWCA Civ 92 3, resulted in the judgement that the Bill of Rights 1688 wasn't a bill of rights at all, it was simply a declaration of the law as it stood in 1688. Which is clearly bullshit but that's High Court justice for you. In the Claim of Right Act 1689 the principle is stated as…
"That the Dissarming of protestants and Imploying papists in the places of greatest trust both Civil and military the thrusting out protestants to make roome for papists and the intrusting papists with the forts and magazines of the Kingdome are Contrary to Law"
…which makes it clear that it's the disarming of people that is the illegal act. It's clear to me that it was illegal to deny RKBA then and it's illegal now.
The law that disarmed Papists (i.e. the 'global ideological terror threat' of C17th, being people who refused to swear an oath of allegiance to King and Parliament) of military weapons and explosives, W&M Sess. 1, C. XV 1688, An Act for the better securing the Government by disarming Papists and reputed Papists, made explicit exemption for self-defence weapons (my emphasis):
"IV That no Papist or reputed Papist, of refusing, or making Default, as aforesaid, shall or may have or keep in his House, or elsewhere, or in the Possession of any other Person to his Use, or at his Disposition, any Arms, Weapons, Gunpowder, or Ammunition (other than such necessary weapons as shall be allowed to him by Order of the Justices of the Peace, at their General Quarter-Sessions, for the Defence of his House or Person)…"
In fact the Claim of Right Act 1689 makes explicit the distinction between rights (lawes, i.e. customary or common law), statute law (statutes), and the freedom to simply do your will (freedomes)…
"All which are utterly and directly contrary to the knoune lawes statutes and freedomes of this realme"
Note, for instance, the ancient Scots law doctrine of Hamesucken, killing of a house-breaker.
See also John Hurst's exposition on Mike Burke's Judicial Reviews.
The state of play in Oct 2008 is outlined in Mike's essay "Reasonable Force" part two.
For the official government line, refer to: British Self Defence Governing Body, the Centre for Physical Interventions, incorporated under authority of Statutory Instrument 1685.
For more on the distinction between customary law, statute law, and freedom see, The Facts Of Reality: Logic And History In Objectivist Debates About Government, by Professor Nicholas Dykes.
The points raised in this article are worth pondering on in this context, The Second Amendment Question before the Supreme Court Constitutionally Flawed and Dangerous.
Be sure and study this Australian High Court ruling.
This legal position on the status of the Bill of Rights and Magna Carta sets a precedent for UK law thanks to the amusingly circular logic of it all. (And does not appear to have considered Mike Burke's case.)
This ruling also encapsulates why, in the UK, we now don't have any rights, only entitlements, and just how pernicious "the Doctrine of the Sovereignty of Parliament" really is (but see below).
Then in February 2002 along came the "Metric Martyrs" judgment and everything had suddenly, mysteriously, changed - it had become expedient to resurrect the idea of "fundamental" Constitutional Law…
See Dr Sean Gabb's essay The "Metric Martyrs" and the Constitution,
"Now, suddenly, the notion of fundamental law has been pulled out of the legal grave in which it had been rotting for three hundred years, and declared part of the law of our Constitution."
An excellent discourse on the whole sorry mess. No, really - it's all simply made up as we go along!
Note that although Scotland's legal system is distinct in many respects from England & Wales, in the case of primary legislation affecting firearms sale, ownership, and importation, the parliament in Westminster and the Home Office have reserved the powers to make and direct the enforcement of the pertinent laws.
It would seem crystal clear given the Declaration of Arbroath, 1320, that the people of Scotland are sovereign, not the parliament at Westminster. If that parliament did have any pretensions to sovereignty it abrogated them with the Treaty of Union, 1707. Anyhoo, the various Justices and Justiciary are still arguing the toss over what the Treaty of Union actually means in practise.
See also, Mos Maiorum: The Ancient Ways of Rome and United Kingdom by Guy R Leven-Torres.
How to Report Treason.
Home Office Firearms Law Guidance to the Police [PDF 875K]
Home Office instructions to the Police on the Firearms Acts, 1968-1997 and Firearms Law in general.
The latest edition I could source is 2002.
This is the definitive, official government, source for information on how the Firearms Acts should be interpreted by the Police and Courts in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland law and practise is variant in many respects (see below).

Firearms for personal protection.

13.72 Applications for the grant of a firearm certificate for the applicant's, or another's, protection, or that of premises, should be refused on the grounds that firearms are not an acceptable means of protection in Great Britain. It has been the view of successive Governments for many years that the private possession and carriage of firearms for personal protection is likely to lead to an increase in levels of violence. This principle should be maintained in the case of applications from representatives of banks and firms protecting valuables or large quantities of money, or from private security guards and bodyguards.

Firearms Law: Guidance to the Police 2002

See also, Guidance on Northern Ireland Firearms Controls, Appendix 3.
Thus common law, the Bill of Rights, Blackstone, and any appeal to RKBA are dispensed with purely by administrative fiat. Allied to this administrative policy, the Home Office and all other government agencies and affiliates (e.g. numerous government-sponsored NGO) have consistently promoted anti-gun propaganda and objectives, both nationally and internationally. Objective facts and research not supporting this agenda are not only ignored, they are invariably mis-represented. All with collusion on the part of the main-stream media. There has been no effective public, or political, debate on the issue of self-defence rights for UK citizens. The UK as an example of "representative democracy" at its finest…one should hardly think so. It seems this sham is what will masquerade as a "free society" in this brave new century of never ending phony war.
It appears to me that GW Bush's enthusiasm in this new millennium for the doctrine of "pre-emptive self-defence" takes the debate into a whole new territory.
For a thorough review of law relating to self-defence, see The Human Right of Self-defense [PDF 1.08M]
DC vs Heller judgement from SCOTUS, Thu Jun 26 2008
District of Colombia et al v Heller [PDF 938K]
This is a required reading for its analysis of the common law.
Note on p19 in the majority decision Justice Scalia (who, masterfully, completely trashed the dissenting opinions) talks about the natural law right to armed self defence that pre-exists the US Constitution and is recognised in English common law. Now perhaps someone will believe me when I say it.

The agenda the British political classes are pursuing is the criminalization of the activities of the law-abiding as a part of the process of building a police state. Centuries of British freedoms being 'broken' by security state, says Sir Ken Macdonald (The Telegraph). For some reason most people are happy for this to happen.

Johnny says: the law is just made up stuff and it's the guys with the guns who get to say what it is and what it means.

As Lysander Spooner said:

"Constitutions are utterly worthless to restrain the tyranny of governments, unless it be understood that the people will by force compell the government to remain within constitutional limits. Practically speaking, no government knows any limits to its power except the endurance of the people."

For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html

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Information Relating to the Cullen Inquiry

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Addresses/Sources

A British subject can write to their Member of Parliament at -

Your MP's Name,
House of Commons,
London, SW1A 0AA

See also, http://www.writetothem.com

You can e-mail the Prime Minister with general views or comments. http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page821.asp

The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1997/1997005.htm
Royal Assent was given on February 27 1997 (the date of "Royal Assent" signifying the use of the Queen's powers as monarch to make an Act of Parliament the Law of the Land) prohibiting the possession of handguns by law-abiding citizens of England, Wales and Scotland.
Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1997/1997064.htm
The Firearms Acts were amended that same year by the incoming Labour Government to prohibit the possession of .22 handguns.
Hansard, the official record of debates in Parliament on-line at this Govt. Webserver -
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm/cmhansrd.htm
(Tip, use the search engine and the query "handgun".)
TheyWorkForYou.com
http://www.theyworkforyou.com
Truly excellent resource, interfaces with government databases and websites (including Hansard) and lets you search and monitor.
The UK Home Office, tasked to "protect the rights of the individual" -
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk
In 2005 the Home Office came under fire from human rights groups for producing plainly false reports and documentation to support the deportation of asylum seekers. Clearly the Home Office is concerned not with reality but with "political reality" and can not be relied upon as a useful source of statistical information.
2002 Home Office Firearms Law Guidance to the Police [PDF 875K]
Home Office "The police" webpage with relevant links: Police use of firearms.
Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/
Note: these statistics are compiled by civil servants under government direction, and are subject to political influence (and revision). There is no plausible scientific objectivity in the compilation and review of "official" statistics - for instance see, Number-crunchers demand independence.
National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS)
http://www.nabis.police.uk
Check out the NABIS FAQ.
Like most of these tracking databases, although they seem like a great idea, in actual use the benefits are negligible whilst the costs are very high.
British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC)
BASC Home->Departments->Firearms
Very useful resource of advice and guidance re UK firearms law from one of Britain's leading shooting organisations.
Sussex Police Online - Firearms Licensing
http://www.sussex.police.uk/advice-and-support/laws-and-licences/firearms
Check out the procedures and form-filling (and download copies of the forms) as implemented by one Police Authority in England.
Firearms Consultative Committee
The Select Committee on Home Affairs Second Report (2000) explains the composition of the Firearms Consultative Committee suggesting changes to its make-up (which were never made). The Committee lives on due to periodic statutory instruments. (Yet another body of unelected "worthies" making arbitrary laws.)
Twelfth Annual Report October 2004.
In response to questions from Bill Wiggin MP and the Earl of Shrewsbury, ministers confirmed that the life of the committee would not be extended beyond 31 January 2004. It's likely a new body more closely focused on the goal of civilian disarmament will be formed.
National Statistics - the official UK statistics site
http://www.statistics.gov.uk
Economic and social data relating to the UK available for downloading.
Note: this is in no way independent from UK government political control; no substantive attempt appears to be made to make it plausible that these statistics aren't shaped according to "political realities." (Though various of the chattering classes sometimes make concerned noises that some independence from government influence should be attempted - for instance see, Number-crunchers demand independence.)
Nationmaster.com, Crime Statistics > Murders (per capita) (most recent) by country
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita
Encyclopaedia of data from around the world. Shows, for instance, Switzerland with one of the highest per-capita firearms ownerships in the world well below the UK in the ranking.
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Links/Other Websites

UK

Strategic Communication Laboratories
http://www.scl.cc
Propaganda is now called "Strategic Communication"…

"The UK is fast becoming the Centre of Excellence for communication techniques. The UK spends more on research and development of strategic communications than any other country in the world demonstrating its determination to bring non-lethal solutions to military conflicts. SCL is playing a significant part in this work."

The Gun Control Network
http://www.gun-control-network.org
"The Gun Control Network" (GCN) is the successor to "The Snowdrop Campaign."
The GCN claims to be the only UK anti-gun organisation…apart from all the political parties, the police, the courts, and the media that is.
Their conclusions are mainly drawn in crayon but here they are nonetheless. Apparently, intelligent people should support gun control because they should realize they are too stupid to be trusted with guns.
Uncritically recycles many of the dubious anti-gun studies analyzed here. Their statement, "No research into gun ownership has ever been conducted in the UK…" is plainly wrong, bearing in mind Colin Greenwood's excellent and definitive book "Firearms Control. A Study of Armed Crime and Firearms Control in England and Wales." (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1972, ISBN 0 7100 7435 2).
The GCN's task is made trivially easy by the fact that none of the UK shooters groups espouse the right to keep and bear arms and so really have no justification for promoting firearms ownership.
Whatever the state of their website, the GCN (a handful of academics and lawyers sponsored by the Government and who represent no-one as far as I can work out) is very influential in policy-making - they had a member on the Firearms Consultative Committee.
You can email GCN and ask why their campaign "…to work for a safer society where there are fewer guns and less gun violence" seems to be resulting in a more violent society with more guns in criminal use and more violence: contact@gun-control-network.org.
No prizes for guessing that their answer is that we haven't banned enough things yet. Actually, last I looked they're having their cake and eating it: according to the GCN gun crime is going down but we need to ban more things anyway because guns and gun-like things scare intelligent people.
Read Boris Karpa's critique of the GCN "Student Education Pack." The pack is intended for the indoctrination of schoolchildren.
Cybershooters website and mailing list FAQ
http://www.cybershooters.org
The website has articles and editorials and comes closest to espousing the right to keep and bear arms for the UK, although in a severely attenuated and heavily circumscribed form: see the position paper, Proposed changes to Government policy on firearms [PDF]. Cybershooters was identified by the UK media as the most radical of the shooters' rights groups following its formation at the time of the Cullen Inquiry. However, IMHO, they qualify their support of the right to keep and bear arms for self defence so much as to negate it as a serious pro-gun-ownership argument for the UK. Like many in the UK "pro-gun" camp they fail to follow the logic of their own arguments.
UK National Rifle Association
http://www.nra.org.uk
Chartered to be engaged in furthering the defence of the realm by promoting marksmanship but, curiously, they do not concern themselves with the right to keep and bear arms. Indeed, the UK NRA has close ties with the British political establishment; against the wishes of its members it forbade the use of the L1A1 service rifle in NRA civilian "service rifle" competition (negating a plea that semi-auto battle rifles have a "sporting purpose" in the UK in anticipation of an opportunity to bring in prohibition which arrived decades later via the Hungerford Massacre). The NRA has been party to the British political establishments' agenda to disarm the British public since the 1920s.
The Sportman's Association
http://www.sportsmansassociation.co.uk/
Formed post-Dunblane as "the voice of shooting fraternity." Not concerned with the right to keep and bear arms. In fact the SA explicitly states "That we do not follow a Right to Bear Arms agenda."
With friends like that, who needs enemies.
The SA organised picketing of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in protest at UK gun laws but this received no media coverage that I noticed.
The Libertarian Alliance
http://www.libertarian.co.uk
Includes articles on gun control in Britain by leading UK Libertarians.
Particularly worthwhile is, "All the Way Down the Slippery Slope: Gun Prohibition in England and Some Lessons for Civil Liberties in America," by Professor Joseph E Olson and Professor David B Kopel
Britain Needs Guns
http://www.britainneedsguns.co.uk

"I'm not anti-police, and I hate violence in society, I simply have the belief that there aren't enough police officers to protect everyone, all the time.
Therefore the only realistic alternative is allowing people to defend themelves."
Graham Showell from Birmingham, England.

Arm Britain.com
http://www.armbritain.com

"Arm Britain.com is a website set up to campaign for the relaxtion of the draconian firearms laws in the United Kingdom. We acknowledge the inalienable right of self defence and see the current laws governing the possession of weapons by the law-abiding as a stranglehold on that right."

Includes, Arm Britain - A No-Compromise, Pro Gun UK Forum.
The British Constitution Group
Fighing to reassert our constitution and the rule of law
http://www.thebcgroup.org.uk

"A political elite has for some time manipulated the electoral system to deprive the people of true democratic representation by constructing a party political system that has allowed, indeed encouraged, acts of treason to have been committed."

"As a direct consequence of the betrayal of the British people by the collective political establishment, and others, the British Constitution Group is calling for Lawful Rebellion, as is our right under article 61 Magna Carta 1215."

P.A. Luty's The Home Gunsmith
http://thehomegunsmith.com
For informational purposes only.

On 22nd May 2009 the Homegunsmith (Philip A. Luty) was, for the fifth time in ten years, attacked by an armed police unit and violently arrested at gunpoint.

In their latest onslaught against freedom of speech, press, personal expression, and dissemination of ideas, the henchmen of the State charged the Homegunsmith with "criminal offences" - namely "Making a record of information likely to be of assistance to terrorists." (Part of the all-encompassing 2000 Terrorism Act.) That's right folks, writing books or articles on one of man's oldest occupations - gunmaking - is now tantamount to an act of terrorism in modern day Britain.

The Homegunsmith.com website has been strategically closed whilst wounds are licked and the troops regrouped.

Ken Holder
Keeper of the Web Pages

Retrieved: Sat Aug 15 06:42:27 UTC 2009

Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers
http://www.sacl.org.uk
A non-political group drawn from all walks of life, dedicated to fighting for reform of the Scottish legal system.
Includes Billy Burns' petition to open for review the files from the Cullen Inquiry.
Dunblane Unburied
http://www.dunblaneunburied.tk
Sandra Uttley lived in Dunblane at the time of the Dunblane Massacre and was working as a paramedic: "This site has been created to call for a new Public Inquiry into the events of 13 March 1996 at Dunblane Primary School, and an investigation into Central Scotland Police and their dealings with Thomas Hamilton."
Dunblane Unburied (Paperback) at Amazon.
Think this is impossible? Ponder on the Tree of Woe over the sorry tale of the gangsters in the political class and the rise and fall of the Kray Twins.
See also, Conspiracy Theory, September 1997
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USA/International

The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)
http://www.iansa.org
Yet another "non-governmental organisation" (NGO) funded by governments and driven by the wishes of the political elites:
"Supported by funders including the Governments of UK, Belgium, Sweden and Norway, as well as the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Compton Foundation, Ploughshares Fund, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Institute, Samuel Rubin Foundation and Christian Aid…"
IANSA seeks nothing less than total disarmament of the civilian population of the world.
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
http://www.bradycampaign.org
Web Pages of America's leading and best-funded "anti-gun" organization (depending on how you view "The Center for Disease Control").
International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights
http://iapcar.org

"Events over the past decade have emphasized the need to protect the individual's rights to defend oneself and one's family against grave threats, including crime, civil unrest and terrorism.
IAPCAR is dedicated to preserving these human rights, but needs your help in the fight.
We are excited to begin welcoming affiliate organizations. There are no dues requirements; however, any donations would certainly be welcomed and dedicated to furthering the goals of IAPCAR.
As we all know, international anti-gun rights groups such as the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) are well funded in their campaign to infringe on firearms rights.
IAPCAR was formed to counter those groups by rebutting the misinformation and myths about firearms that are often internationally published by these groups."

Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
http://www.ccrkba.org
USA pro-gun organisation which supposedly has a London office; although neither I nor anyone I know has been able to contact the London office nor does CCRKBA reply to requests for information about its "London office."
Armed Females of America
http://www.armedfemalesofamerica.com
Guns aren't just for boys.
Liberty Belles
http://www.libertybelles.org
"Women must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself." - Susan B Anthony, July 1871.
Pink Pistols
http://www.pinkpistols.org
"Thirty-one states allow all qualified citizens to carry concealed weapons. In those states, homosexuals should embark on organized efforts to become comfortable with guns, learn to use them safely and carry them. They should set up Pink Pistols task forces, sponsor shooting courses and help homosexuals get licensed to carry. And they should do it in a way that gets as much publicity as possible."
Jonathan Rauch, Salon Magazine, March 13, 2000
Dave Kopel's Website
http://www.davekopel.com
An excellent source of articles on empirical studies of the basis of the claims of anti-gun proponents.
Global Deaths from Firearms: Searching for Plausible Estimates [PDF], is particularly worth a read.
The Second Amendment Foundation
http://www.saf.org
The Foundation has a noteworthy track record in supporting legal actions, or amicus briefs, in cases affecting the right to keep and bear arms in the US.
The Journalist's Guide to Gun Policy Scholars and Second Amendment Scholars.
http://www.gunscholar.org
Professor Eugene Volokh's outstanding compilation, a tremendous resource.
US National Rifle Organization
http://www.nra.org
Note that the NRA is frequently criticised on pro-gun mailing lists as being too establishment and too ready to accept "gun control" measures.
Gun Owners of America
http://www.gunowners.org
"The only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington."
Much more in tune with American grass-roots gun owners than the NRA.
Jeff Chan's Archives
http://www.rkba.org
Definitive RKBA source.
Gun Facts - Current Version
http://www.gunfacts.info
A useful analysis of US anti-gun propaganda maintained by Guy Smith. Especially relevant for UK readers is the section, "Guns in Other Countries."
GunCite
http://www.guncite.com
Comprehensive compilation of writings and essays about the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution.
Because Human Life Is Worth Defending
http://www.a-human-right.com
An émigré Russian's view of the issues. Great pictures.
Oleg's Livejournal blog is here, http://olegvolk.livejournal.com and see: VolkStudio and volkshirts.com.
Black Man With A Gun
http://www.blackmanwithagun.com
"The USA's most audacious advocate for self defense."
Black Gun Owners Discussion Forum
http://www.blackgunowners.org
Lively Internet discussion forum, interesting "politics" section.
Victim Disarmament
http://www.voicenet.com/~pidata/vdf.html
A personal, pro-RKBA, site protesting against victim disarmament a.k.a. "gun control."
Coalition of Law Abiding Sporting Shooters
http://www.c-l-a-s-s.net
Australian pro-gun organisation.
Take a look at: Spinning a Tale: Media bias and Government Spin and Journalism 101.
Gun Watch
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com
"Monitoring people's right to effective self-defence."
Prolific Australian blogger John Ray is always worth a look, whatever the topic he's tackling.
The World Wide Web Gun Defense Clock
http://www.pulpless.com/gunclock/
News you don't read in the 'papers.
See also, "Stopping Power, Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns" by J Neil Schulman [PDF 865K], free ebook - J Neil's comprehensive analysis of American "gun control."

Newsgroups

Newsgroups are arguably no longer the force they once were but debate is still…lively…and might suit people of masochistic leanings…
talk.politics.guns the original and notorious, mainly US-related.
uk.politics.guns
uk.politics.crime
Arguably a new implementation of Newsgroups are the web-interfaced groups maintained by various portal sites. One of particular interest here is <DunblaneInquiry@groups.msn.com>.
http://groups.msn.com/DunblaneInquiry
See also,
http://groups.msn.com/InjusticeScotland
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Parting Shots

And now for something completely different -

For all who've reached the end, here's some wisdom from The Guru -

"The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely upon the moral stature of its user. It is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny. In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny, since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized."
    "The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles."
"The Art of the Rifle"
Col. Jeff Cooper

Perhaps we should listen to a true British statesman as well -

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
Winston Churchill

And we shall not forget -

"Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit."
The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320
(It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting but for freedom, for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.)


Keep and Bear Arms is a great site, and you've got to love this Scott Bieser cartoon…
Lord Brit-itch thinks banned guns need to be banned some more.

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For what I think is "the way" see, Gun Law for the 21st Century. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/gunlaw.html

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