-Caveat Lector-
>From NEWSMAX.COM
>>Of course, this is monarchist BS, another example of keeping the serfs down.
The obvious problem (and danger) is taking one single datum and extrapolating a
position therefrom. If mass shootings were epidemic, then this might have some
value. But to use one random case to impose law and order on the people is a
loonngg stretch. Like Columbine and the few other teenybopper pop-offs, these
represent only a bare handfull of incidents, many of which were probably copy-
catted (sensationalist media {five minutes of fame} and reportedly due to some
'responsible' psychotropic activities. YET: do we hear about banning chemical
additives to children's nervous systems? Nooooo ... What else remains as
bizarre is no one seems to mind that cars are responsible for killing more
people each year than weapons of projectile destruction. YET: do we hear any
outcries for banning the six-wheeled (count 'em) steel projectiles? Nooooo.
Burglar heaven? Ah, yes. Due to the decreasing number of weapons of
projectile destruction (guns), the burglary rate seems to have gone up in jelly
ol' Britland. The U.S., with its 300 million guns has a rate about one quarter
of the Britlanders'. (Apparently, the American crooks don't like getting shot
at when attempting to relieve their fellow citizens of worldly possesions and
are therefore a little more choosier in their targets.) But, that has nothing
to do with the public safety (read on). A<>E<>R <<<
}}>Begin
Britain Tightens Gun Laws Further
NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, Oct. 5, 2000
See Britain and Gun Control: Neither Liberty nor Safety
LONDON (UPI) � Britain is tightening its strict gun laws and putting even more
limits on the ownership of firearms, including imitation firearms for
youngsters, the Home Office said Wednesday.
"Our overriding concern is to ensure public safety, and we believe that strong
controls on firearms are absolutely essential to achieve this," Home Office
Minister Charles Clarke said.
"Our firearms controls are already among the strongest in the world, and these
new proposals will increase their effectiveness."
Britain was shocked into action against gun ownership after a 43-year-old man,
Thomas Hamilton, gunned down 16 children and a teacher at a Scottish primary
school on March 13, 1996. The shooting at Dunblane injured 12 other children
and two teachers and ended only when Hamilton killed himself.
A ban on handgun ownership followed and spurred Parliament to seek other ways
of controlling guns.
Clarke said the new package of measures would include better controls on
shotguns, tighter restrictions on the use of guns by young people, firm action
against the misuse of air guns and would work to tackle the use of illegal guns
in crime.
"We realize that this is an emotive subject, with strong feelings on either
side," he said.
"We have sought to strike a balance and to target our controls fairly and
proportionately." But he said some of the measures unveiled on Wednesday would
help curb the development of a "gun culture" in Britain.
The announcement of tougher gun control came despite British successes in the
recently ended Olympic shooting events in Sydney. Richard Faulds won a gold
medal in the men's shooting double trap, and Ian Peel won a silver in the men's
shooting trap.
The new rules are the government's response to a parliamentary committee report
on gun control, which recommended tough new measures, including a ban on the
sale of imitation firearms to those under 18 years old.
Clarke said new controls would require those wanting to own a shotgun to
demonstrate a good reason to have one.
But the government held back from introducing a total ban on people less than
16 years old using guns and rejected a licensing system for Britain's 4 million
airguns, arguing that it would be too cumbersome, costly and difficult to
administer.
Clarke said the government decided against a total ban on gun use by minors
because that would hurt Britain's ability to compete in future shooting events.
"If we simply banned young people under the age of 16 from handling guns then
we could end up in the position of simply not having sporting activity in this
area at all in a few years," he said.
The new controls were attacked as too harsh by the pro-shooting lobby.
British Shooting Sports Council Secretary Pat Johnson said the tougher laws
would "make it more difficult for us to produce another Richard Faulds by
making it harder for youngsters wanting to take up shooting."
Clay Pigeon Shooting Association said the regulations were a smokescreen for a
government that was not tackling the real problem: more criminals gaining
access to firearms. Executive Director Emilio Roduna called the tighter
controls "arbitrary and without justification that would penalize law-abiding
people."
Police sources, however, said they were disappointed the controls did not go
far enough in banning airguns.
See more on gun control and gun rights in Hot Topics.
(C) 2000 UPI. All Rights Reserved.
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A<>E<>R
Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960)
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The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The libertarian therefore considers one of his prime educational
tasks is to spread the demystification and desanctification of the
State among its hapless subjects. His task is to demonstrate
repeatedly and in depth that not only the emperor but even the
"democratic" State has no clothes; that all governments subsist
by exploitive rule over the public; and that such rule is the reverse
of objective necessity. He strives to show that the existence of
taxation and the State necessarily sets up a class division between
the exploiting rulers and the exploited ruled. He seeks to show that
the task of the court intellectuals who have always supported the State
has ever been to weave mystification in order to induce the public to
accept State rule and that these intellectuals obtain, in return, a
share in the power and pelf extracted by the rulers from their deluded
subjects.
[[For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Murray N. Rothbard,
Fox & Wilkes, 1973, 1978, p. 25]]
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