| The banning of handguns after Dunblane was a cheap, pointless political knee jerk reaction by the labour party to gain votes. It has achieved precisely nothing in terms of safety to the general public as hand gun crime has increased dramatically, an automatic pistol is now seen as a fashion accessory in some cultural groups.
What it has in fact achieved is the loss of a perfectly legitimate pastime for those who enjoyed target shooting, ironically at the last Olympics our pistol shooters took gold medals but now have to go abroad to practice. The further irony is that our disastrous misfortune in "winning" the Olympics for London will mean that some form of compromise will have to be reached if the pistol shooting is to take place. As the owning and carrying of handguns by the general public is illegal in this country by rights we should not have been eligible to apply to host the games.
You can ban what you like, guns, knives, screwdrivers, any other pointy things but it still won't work. You should be able to carry a knife, the problem only arises when it is used to harm others, which would happen far less often if the law was applied more positively. We have seen a plethora of unworkable, pointless, complex legislation under this government none of which is necessary if the judicial system applied the basic original laws rigidly.
As to the death penalty there are numerous occasions when it would not deter a total nutcase drugged out of his skull but a lot less people would carry guns in the commision of calculated crime if they thought they might pay the ultimate price if they killed someone.
Surely if the threat of the death penalty existed and saved some innocent lives it would be justifiable ? You'll never see a return to hard labour or life meaning life in terms of a jail sentence, the judiciary are just too soft for that. |