Ruh-roh. Y'mean it wasn't just the "easy availability" of guns that was causing people to kill each other? But, but, you said that if we took away the guns, the problem would go away!
From the Daily Telegraph comes this:
Heh. Hmmmm. So, mebbe some effort on figuring out *why* the little darlings are slicing and dicing each other is in order?
Oops. Guess not.
No, it's always the tool. I look forward to future enforcement efforts against awls, ice picks, screwdrivers, pens, pencils, sharp sticks, etc. Then we can move to bludgeoning tools. Soon enough, you'll need a permit to walk about town with your hands unshackled, less you be tempted to use your hands for nefarious purposes.
Or something like that.
And before someone says, "All well and good, but they have to get control of it short-term in order to defeat it long-term" etc, I would simply note that isn't how things seem to work with governmental efforts like this - on either side of the pond. Having "done something" agencies and politicians are happy to move along to something else, much less hard and intractable (and potentially uncomfortable in terms of PC sensitivities) until it becomes time to "Do something" again - at which point, their only tool being a hammer, they will pound the same nail down again, without wondering why the nail keeps working itself out of the hole.
/rant.
From the Daily Telegraph comes this:
One teenager killed on Britain's streets every five days
One teenager has been killed on the streets of Britain every five days this year as the number of fatal stabbings soars, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Heh. Hmmmm. So, mebbe some effort on figuring out *why* the little darlings are slicing and dicing each other is in order?
In response, the Met launched its largest operation yet targeting knives, called Operation Blunt 2, using airport-style metal detectors, search wands and emergency stop-and-search powers. Since it began in the Spring, 150,000 people have been searched, 5,370 people arrested and 3,242 knives seized.
Tough enforcement measures, a high detection rate and millions of pounds being spent on anti knife crime initiatives had not stopped the rate of killing rising sharply from 17 in 2006, 16 each in 2005 and 2004, and 15 in 2003. But the latest drive has significantly curbed the rate of killings in London in the last three months.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "We are very concerned about younger and younger people getting involved, being willing to use knives in violent confrontations and losing their lives. We want to create that environment where, if you are prepared to carry a knife, you can expect to be searched and found out. Every knife we recover could be a life saved."
Tough enforcement measures, a high detection rate and millions of pounds being spent on anti knife crime initiatives had not stopped the rate of killing rising sharply from 17 in 2006, 16 each in 2005 and 2004, and 15 in 2003. But the latest drive has significantly curbed the rate of killings in London in the last three months.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "We are very concerned about younger and younger people getting involved, being willing to use knives in violent confrontations and losing their lives. We want to create that environment where, if you are prepared to carry a knife, you can expect to be searched and found out. Every knife we recover could be a life saved."
Oops. Guess not.
But someone's looking into it, right? Of course, it won't involve anything that might smack of discipline, restraint, values. Noooo. That would be insensitive or something. Heh. Here's guessing that the problem is "easy availability of knives, and a lack of a program of registration" or something similar. Because *that's* always the problem. It's never got anything to do with *why* the little waterheaded mouthbreathers think sticking/shooting/beating each other is a good idea.Senior officers admit, however, that it remains a mystery why, while levels of other violent crime are down, youth homicides are at their highest ever level. They also cannot explain what triggered such a shocking rise.
No, it's always the tool. I look forward to future enforcement efforts against awls, ice picks, screwdrivers, pens, pencils, sharp sticks, etc. Then we can move to bludgeoning tools. Soon enough, you'll need a permit to walk about town with your hands unshackled, less you be tempted to use your hands for nefarious purposes.
Or something like that.
And before someone says, "All well and good, but they have to get control of it short-term in order to defeat it long-term" etc, I would simply note that isn't how things seem to work with governmental efforts like this - on either side of the pond. Having "done something" agencies and politicians are happy to move along to something else, much less hard and intractable (and potentially uncomfortable in terms of PC sensitivities) until it becomes time to "Do something" again - at which point, their only tool being a hammer, they will pound the same nail down again, without wondering why the nail keeps working itself out of the hole.
/rant.
Just proves, however, that people intending to perform violence will use what they can get their hands on. Gee, what happened to "Can't we all just get along"?
"God created all men. Colonel Colt made them equal": Anon.
"A man with a rifle is a citizen. A man without one is a subject": Henry Clay.
These are two of my favorite quotes. They say much with only a few words.
In my day kids used bike chains, ball bats, slingshots, and the occasional knife. The problem is conflict resulting from competition. It's a scalable effect, going from 2 bodies interacting to two cultures interacting. It's pretty telling that folks who claim to be such educated bastions of the self-appointed ruling classes can fail to see this.
You want to reduce violent crime amongst youth? Get them involved in sports of some nature. Football, baseball, boxing, track, chess, whatever. Competitions where prizes and recognition are awarded, where they can resolve their issues in the ring, upon the field, rather than on the alley and in the street, even though those things will still, to a certain extent, occur.
But confiscatory legislation and draconian police state methods will eventually slow down one on one crime. The problem is that, chaffing under such a yoke, the population will turn it's interests upon the ruling class to a nuch greater extent than upon and amongst themselves.
In 1987, following a massacre in which people were killed by a man using an AK47 and a pistol, the Government introduced further restrictions concerning - you guessed it - shotguns.
Judging by their past actions the UK Governments answer to the knife problem will probably involve banning tableforks with more that four prongs on the grounds that both knives and forks are cutlery.
I've lived here too long to expect anything but a kneejerk reaction from our leaders.