This past week Britain’s mainstream media has been full of reports on the rise of gun crimes. But the coverage only appeared after the murder of two teenage girls catapulted the crisis into public awareness. Prior to that the country’s mainstream media had all but ignored the problem. This, despite the fact that armed crime has been rising steadily in the country since 1997.
In fact gun crime has grown ever since legislation was passed in the wake of the Dunblane killings prohibiting gun ownership. In 1998 there were 9 fatal shootings in London, the following year that figure had more than doubled to 20. Thereafter each year has seen a steady rise in the number of shootings, but only now, 5 years later, has the mainstream media decided to tell us. And only after they were forced to acknowledge the problem after high profile shootings.
And once again we are not being told the whole story. For the rise in gun crime in Britain, following the passage of stringent anti-gun legislation exactly parallels the situation in Australia. In 1999, following the Port Arthur shootings, the Australian government implemented a sweeping gun ban and confiscation program. In the wake of that it might be expected that gun crimes would have all but disappeared, but exactly the opposite happened. The following year it was reported that armed robberies had climbed by 44 per cent, whilst in the State of Victoria alone murders with firearms climbed by 300 per cent!
Clearly sweeping gun bans do not stop gun crimes. They only disarm law-abiding citizens, whilst the criminal element retain their firearms, and with fewer law abiding gun owners to deter them they are all the more likely to use them.
However don’t expect to hear that from the mainstream media: because stringent anti-gun legislation has foreshadowed the emergence of totalitarian regimes throughout the last century. And it doesn’t matter whether criminals possess guns or not, because they will be the last to fight against a totalitarian takeover.
Stringent gun control has indeed become the hallmark of those who wish to further their power over a free society. After all an unarmed population is far less able to resist the imposition of totalitarian rule than an armed one. The figures speak for themselves:
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, some 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves were rounded up and slaughtered.
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. Thereafter some 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and thrown into Stalin’s gulags.
In 1938 Germany established gun control and from 1939 to 1945 some 13 million were thrown into Hitler’s concentration camps.
Obviously sweeping gun bans do nothing but offer an open doorway to dictatorship. Which may account for the mainstream media’s reluctance to report growing gun crime until it was forced to cover the issue by events that few could ignore. The government and the media have yet to acknowledge that stringent gun legislation has done nothing to curb crime. Instead they've waffled on about tackling the 'causes of crime' and banning imitation firearms and even pellet guns. Anything but admit that stringent gun curbs have done nothing but encouraged more gun crimes.
“This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future.” Adolph Hitler 1933
Last updated 23/01/2003
Homepage