Reply #38: Good as far as it goes.........

[Pert_UK]

I'll reply to this comment, rather than the other two....

:-)

"A particular person who would have qualified for legal handgun ownership under the old laws, might still commit a crime with a handgun, only now, this same person would be placed in the category of "persons who illegally owned handguns and have committed a crime". "

This overlooks the fact that gun ownership in the UK was a very serious business (unlike the more "casual" attitude in the US). The Police knew who all the legal gun owners were. Those owners were given a deadline to hand in their weapons and compensated when they did. Anybody who didn't hand in the weapon would have been traced as a matter of urgency and their weapon recovered.

You really had to jump through hoops to get a gun legally in the UK - it meant presenting yourself to the Police, investing in authorised gun safes, being subject to check-ups etc. The sort of person willing to go through this is generally highly unlikely to go out and obtain illegal firearms following the ban.

I'm not saying that it NEVER happened, and I'm not saying that previous legal owners haven't committed any violent crimes since, but what I am saying is that in order to get the gun permit orginally they'd have to be law-abiding, responsible, citizens with (I believe) a note from their doctor certifying that their state of mind was OK for gun ownership. It seems bizarre to assume that these people would then break multiple laws and risk imprisonment to obtain guns illegally and then use them in a violent crime.

Generally speaking, in the UK handguns are used in crimes by people who have chosen to lead a criminal lifestyle - they are not available as a weapon of choice to the general public, even when members of the general public lose the plot and become violent.