Overall homicides for 2005/06 show a 9% decrease over the previous year, and 2005/06 figures include the 52 people killed in the London Bombings of 7th July 2005.

The figures of 9,974 exclude the use of air guns, but include the use of replica weapons, which rose from under 1000 to over 3000, a trend which has continued to increase since 2000/01, whereas the use of genuine handguns rose to a peak in 2000/01, fell, and has risen slightly again.

Further confusing the issue is that some police reporting methods changed in 2002/03, which inflated the gun offences statistics in some categories and not others. Prior to then ‘injury’ meant a physical injury, whereas now merely being threatened (whilst unpleasant, to be sure) gets you a nod in the statistics.

The total figures show a steady decline from 24000 odd in 2002/03 to 21,521, the second consecutive year of a decline. Roughly half those offences involved an airgun.

But of course the BBC aren’t interested in a complicated picture like that.

I’m not saying she is wrong, just that the UK is probably not the right example to use.

I don’t know about the whole legitimacy of self-defence stuff, as I’m not in the UK, but I’ll wager it’s a bit more complex than what the Beeb is selling.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb0207.pdf

Gun crime has risen by 35% in a year, new Home Office figures show.
There were 9,974 incidents involving firearms in the 12 months to April 2002 – a rise from 7,362 over the previous year.

Or, could’ve been this:

A new study suggests the use of handguns in crime rose by 40% in the two years after the weapons were banned.
The research, commissioned by the Countryside Alliance’s Campaign for Shooting, has concluded that existing laws are targeting legitimate users of firearms rather than criminals.

Which are both pretty dated, I admit – right after the gun ban became law. But this isn’t – it’s from February of this year:

The proportion of gun crime occurring outside the hotspots of London, Birmingham and Manchester has risen sharply from 36 per cent in 2002-03 to 45 per cent in 2004-05

Those are pretty big increases year over year, even if they do come from a lower starting figure. I think she’s made at least a rebuttable point, Chris.

And we read an awful lot about UK citizens getting rousted by the constabulary for daring to defend themselves. That’s a culture of its own that wouldn’t sell very well over here, for whatever reason. Which is a good thing, since no one’s offering to sell it.

Which means that whatever the result of stricter gun control laws in the UK, they simply aren’t relevant to the situation in the US. Apples and oranges, innit?

I’ll be impressed when I see the word “Evil” in an editorial. I ain’t holding my breath..

b2