Just Like Communism, Gun Control Only Works if EVERYBODY Does It?

Mr. Free Market emailed me this one, and it bears a striking resemblance to the argument Canada is making about the U.S.

Chunnel security shambles

A SUN undercover reporter smuggled a pistol into Britain using the Channel Tunnel — just like Harvey Nichols killer Michael Pech.

Our man bought a Walther P-38 gun at a Czech market, then drove to Calais and on to the Chunnel’s shuttle train without being searched or quizzed.

Evil Pech, 30, used the same route to smuggle in a gun and murder shop girl Clare Bernal before killing himself.

GUN crime is soaring in Britain — with an armed offence committed EVERY HOUR.

The number of firearms incidents has doubled in England and Wales since 1997.

Cases of attempted murder with firearms have also doubled to over 1,200 annually — more than three every day.

In the year up to June, 11,160 gun crimes were recorded, up five per cent on 2004.

A study has revealed that one in ten teenage schoolboys in London had carried a real handgun, replica, or ballbearing gun in the last year. The list of victims falling prey to firearms is also growing.

They include schoolgirl Danielle Beccan, 14, who was murdered in a drive-by shooting as she returned from Goose Fair in Nottingham in October 2004. Two men were jailed this month.

And in another crime which shocked the nation, Toni-Ann Byfield, seven, was shot alongside her drug-dealer father Bertram Byfield, 41, at a flat in North West London two years ago.

An associated story:

Gun scandal

THE SUN today reveals the scandal of how simple it is for smugglers to bring deadly handguns into Britain.

At the weekend two of our journalists bought a deadly Walther pistol in a Czech market.

Then it was next stop London, with no checks made as they journeyed across Europe and through the Channel Tunnel.

It is believed thousands of firearms enter the country this way — fuelling the terrifying rise in gun crime on our streets.

Eastern Europe is awash with guns. They pour in from the former Soviet states and the Middle East.

Six weeks ago the Chunnel route was used by Slovakian Michael Pech before he shot ex-girlfriend Clare Bernal in a London store.

Shockingly, NOTHING has been done since then to tighten controls.

The possession of handguns was banned in Britain in 1997 following the Dunblane massacre.

Yet illegal ownership is believed to be higher than it has ever been, and the yearly toll of deaths and injuries from guns has DOUBLED.

If no effort is made to stop firearms at our borders that figure will continue to rise ... and shame us.

And all of this, after the government banned all modern handguns, and 57,000 people turned in their 162,000 legally owned, legally registered firearms.

"No effort" is being made? I find that highly doubtful. I mean, after all, I reported on the fully-automatic Uzi submachineguns being smuggled into England that were detected by customs officials. Thirty Uzis, twenty-nine silencers and 475 rounds of ammo. And a lot of frozen pizza.

It does make me wonder how many they've missed, though. And whether you can order a large pepperoni with a suppressed Uzi on the side.

Supply and demand. The first law of economics cannot be eliminated. And, although England is an island, they still cannot keep guns out. Yet Canada thinks the U.S. can stop the flow of firearms across that pourous border? We can't stop the flood of drugs and illegal aliens across the (much shorter) Southern border.

"Homicide rates tend to be related to firearm ownership levels. Everything else being equal, a reduction in the percentage of households owning firearms should occasion a drop in the homicide rate".

Evidence to the Cullen Inquiry 1996: Thomas Gabor, Professor of Criminology - University of Ottawa

According to this Home Office report the homicide rate for England & Wales over the last two decades is as follows:

1984 - 10.8/million population
1985 - 10.7
1986 - 11.2
1987 - 11.9
1988 - 10.9
1989 - 10.3
1990 - 10.9
1991 - 12.3
1992 - 11.4
1993 - 11.1
1994 - 12.4
1995 - 13.0
1996 - 11.4
1997 - 11.9 (all handguns banned)
1997/98 - 11.8 (They changed reporting methods here - wonder why?)
1998/99 - 12.6
1999/2000 - 13.1
2000/01 - 14.9
2001/02 - 15.5
2002/03 - 18.4
2003/04 - 15.8

Yes, the gun confiscation was tremendously successful, wasn't it?