imported post
BTW - everybody is law abiding until they break the law - duh. So your point is a bit light on substance.
Actually, that is my point! The fact that people are scout masters, priests, teachers or other people 'of good character' or 'law-abiding' is no guarantee that they will not suddenly stop being both without warning! Were all the massacres in the USA committed by obvious crazed lunatics? If so, why were they allowed guns in the first place? Or were they just people who didn't show up on the radar until they started shooting?
As I said elsewhere on this forum, if I lived in the USA Imight want to carry a gun. American society is so awash with firearms and with a murder rate 3 times that of 'violent' Britain, perhaps I'd feel safer. Of course I'd always be worried about someone not of good character trying to take my gun from me. Check out how many armed US police officers are shot with their own weapons.
In 30 years as a British police officer I nevercarried a weapon on routine patrol. There is violence in our society too, but I did not feel the need then or now to protect myself from my fellow citizens with a gun. They're not, generally, that bad!Remember, you're overwhelmingly more likely, in the UK at least,to be murdered by a member of your family than a stranger.
'penalize a nation for what the criminals do' The nation is not being penalised. Hardly any British people owned firearms before the latest gun controls.It is only the tiny minority of firearms enthusiasts who were inconvenienced. And, I repeat, the worst incidents of firearms murders were not committed by hardened criminals, drug dealers or persistent burglars. They were ostensibly non-criminal, until they started murdering!
Not being allowed to carry lethal weapons is not the same as having no freedoms. My freedom to get blind drunk and drive my car as fast as I can along the public highway is severely curbed by the law, but, on the whole, society is probably a better place as a result. I'll take the freedom to go about my life without being shot by some disturbed citizen over his freedom to carry a gun, whatever his motives,any day.