I Dream Awake

Shocking isn’t it? With no substantial right to self-defense and a near total ban on personal ownership and use of guns by private citizens gun crimes haves skyrocketed. I wonder why…

We have, post-Dunblane, what are said to be the toughest gun control laws in the world. They have actually proved strikingly ineffectual.

Gun crime has doubled since they were introduced. Young hoodlums are able to acquire handguns - either replica weapons that have been converted, or imports from eastern Europe - with ease. With no dedicated frontier police, our borders remain hopelessly porous. The only people currently incommoded by the firearms laws are legitimate holders of shotgun licences, who are subjected to the most onerous police checks.

Even more disturbing is the insouciance with which guns are used. An 18-year-old Angolan refugee was sentenced to life this week for shooting dead a woman holding a baby at a christening party, in what was otherwise a “routine” robbery.

Maybe if violent criminals had a bit more reason to fear for their own safety when attacking someone they might be just a smidge less likely to commit a crime in the first place… Nah. That’s crazy talk…