Summary: Together the UK and US are running one of the greatest social experiments in history, testing different ways to maintain internal order. The test of capitalism vs. socialism produced definitive results; perhaps this one will as well. If so, let’s hope the cost to the loser will be less than suffered by the socialist and communist states. {1st of 2 posts today.}
For decades UK public policy has strived to eliminate from public use guns and knives. Only the State can protect you. Subjects of the crown still have a right to self-defense (here is a clearer explanation). American right-wingers often get this wrong.
Simultaneously the US has gone in the opposite direction by eliminating restrictions on both concealed and open carry of guns — including rifles — and in some States even broadening people’s right to shoot others for flimsy reasons (“stand your ground” laws).
Time will tell which works better. The cost of the American experiment is paid in blood by those shot by accident, those who shoot themselves (a 7 year is the 360th so far in 2015), and those are shot in anger (made easy by our lightly regulated gun markets).
Today we look at developments in the UK, with helpful advice from their police about your right to defend yourself as a subject of the Queen. There is an important limit on your right to self-defense: not with weapons. Red emphasis added in the following excerpt.
Helpful advice brought to you from the website of the Police of England & Wales
The only fully legal self defence product at the moment is a rape alarm. These are not expensive and can be bought from most local police stations or supermarkets.
There are other self defence products which claim to be legal (e.g. non toxic sprays), however, until a test case is brought before the court, we cannot confirm their legality or endorse them. If you purchase one you must be aware that if you are stopped by the police and have it in your possession there is always a possibility that you will be arrested and detained until the product, it’s contents and legality can be verified.
However, accepting there is a lot of concern about street crime, we can try to clarify matters a little by putting forward the following points.
- You must not get a product which is made or adapted to cause a person injury. Possession of such a product in public (and in private in specific circumstances) is against the law.
- There are products which squirt a relatively safe, brightly coloured dye (as opposed to a pepper spray). A properly designed product of this nature, used in the way it is intended, should not be able to cause an injury.
- However, be aware that even a seemingly safe product, deliberately aimed and sprayed in someone’s eyes, would become an offensive weapon because it would be used in a way that was intended to cause injury.
- Any products bought from abroad have a greater chance of being illegal.
The above advice is given in good faith, you must make your own decision and this website cannot be held responsible for the consequences of the possession, use or misuse of any self defence product.
———————— End of advice from the UK Police ————————
What about the horrific crime rates in the UK?
Most of the lurid reports unfavorably comparing US and UK crime statistics are bogus, comparing numbers with different definitions. Here is a clear debunking of the most common. PolitiFact gives a more detailed debunking.
Here is a comparison of crime rates within the OECD. The UK has higher rates of robbery and lower rates of murder. Here are results about levels and trends from the Crime Survey for England and Wales in 2012-13, and for 2014 (they’re low and falling).
For More Information
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about gun ownership, and especially these…
- Another mass killing in America. Watch the reactions on the Right.
- But Hitler confiscated guns, leaving Germans helpless!
- Guns do not make us safer. Why is this not obvious?
- Myth-busting about gun use in the Wild West
- Second amendment scholarship (using money to reshape America).
- Do guns make us more safe, or less? Let’s look at the research.
- Guns in the wild west: regulated, with no fears about ripping the Constitution.
- Why do we believe an armed society is a polite society?
- The number of children killed by guns in America makes us exceptional, not better.
