As a Washington Post investigative series plays “pin the blame on gun dealers,” a cautionary tale out of the United Kingdom reveals that even a total handgun ban isn’t going to stop criminals from obtaining firearms. “The gang members I spoke to said getting hold of weapons was no problem,” the BBC reports. Writer Dan Johnson has it straight from the horse’s mouth. “Getting hold of a gun now is just as easy as walking into a shop and buying groceries’ explained Jason in a thick Sheffield accent. “You have all these contacts so if you ever need a gun, you’ll just contact that person and ask and its done. Get the cash and you’ve got the gun. It’s as easy as that.” On an island? With some of the most draconian gun laws in the free world? Really?
He could be bragging but his claim is backed up by a confidential youth offending service report which I got hold of.
The report’s author is clear that firearms are easily available to a small minority with the right connections.
“I would say young people can get hold of guns and young people have got hold of guns, on the basis that young people are dying” said Ronny Tucker, who manages the council’s Targeted Youth Support Team.
“Young people who are in the know will be able to go and get weapons, quite easily – easier than me or you.
“What we’ve got to do is get them away from that way of thinking, away from those circles so we’re not having young people growing up thinking we’re in a gun society.”
Check that last remark. By American standards, Britain is about as much of a “gun society” as the island of Yap. Maybe the UK’s PC police are thinking about attacking the gun problem from a cultural perspective, ’cause legal strictures sure aren’t working. Violent crime is up, and guns are still part of the mix.
Just like the US of A, gangs are responsible for the majority of the UK’s violent crimes. There’s your ground zero for gun crimes. In the UK, that’s not a particularly hopeful realization.
“It is such a wide thing that the authorities and the police are just not smart enough to stop it and to be fully honest, I don’t think it will ever stop.
“It’s always going to be happening one way or another.”
