Quote Originally Posted by tiasman:
It's absolutely comparable. Mad people will always find victims, and laws restricting the rights of good people will never change that. The knife attack had a larger death toll even.
I remember during the london riots watching a once proud society forced to defend itsself with sticks and stones, it looked like a defeated people to me.
In my state over 1.5 million people hold concealed gun licenses, since 1994, with no negative instances.
BTW, Britains homocide rate is no lower than the U.S., when gang on gang violence is subtracted. :)
If the ethos of the old west is personal liberty, then yes.
The comparison is flimsy at best.
You'll always find people who are mentally unstable or have a gripe against society. If unfortunately they decide to exact a vengeance on fellow citizens, then I'd rather they attempted to do so with a knife than a weapon designed to kill, on which death can come with just a twitch of the finger.
I don't recall anyone using stones in the London riots! I did hear a story about someone throwing dog shit at a shoplifter though ;)
The simple thing which the riots exposed were how woeful & unprepared our police were when asked to deal with a situation out of the norm. These weren't the first UK riots & they won't be the last (though they were the first to happen under the scrutiny of a 24hr news blood-lust & the instant communication of mobile phones) Every few generations, and given the nature of a failed capitalist system where the gap between rich and poor is growing, you'll encounter large pockets of society who are utterly disenfranchised & intent on causing a bit of spontaneous anarchy against the state.
Considering the thousands who were out on the streets up & down the country, it's unfortunate, but telling, that only 4 deaths occurred - 1 shooting & 3 from a hit-and-run driver.
I'll wager that had the rioters & the general public been granted easy access to guns, the death toll would have been considerably higher.
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