[quote] The toughening of the licensing procedure to bear firearms may help to fight against crime says Britain’s Home Affaires Select Committee that suggested several amendments to the current gun law.
* * * "Notably, at present, one can receive a license for firearms only for sport or hunting purposes and this is linked with serious restrictions. In fact, these restrictions have never helped to reduce crimes. For one, in the 80s, the U.S. surpassed Britain significantly in the level of street crimes. But in the 90s when Britain toughened the procedure of licensing and the U.S. on the contrary, expanded the right to bear weapons, the number of robberies using weapons fell from 202 to 148 per 100,000 people in the US from 1996 to 2001, but in Britain, this figure grew from 143 to 183 per one hundred thousand people. This trend remains even to this day. This means it’s impossible to fight against crime by using this method because the answer to the question depends on who bears the weapon. Imposing restriction on access to weapons legally will only restrict the chances of law-abiding people, but this will never have an impact on a criminal." Commenting on the situation, chairman of the Federal Council of the Interregional Political and Public Organization, “Civil Weapon”, Andrei Vasilevsky has this to say. “The British law is extremely tough,” says Andrei Vasilevsky. “The use of a weapon for self defence is practically banned in Britain. Its move to remove legal weapons will lead to a growth in crime rather then a fall. Consequently, further toughening the law will produce the same result. These measures are not so significant because under the current law it is practically impossible to use a weapon for self defence. The situation in Britain is worse than in Russia because one can use a weapon for self defence inside a house in Russia,” Andrei Vasilevsky said. Such a self defence is legal and effective, and really, reduces the number of armed robberies. Even such a use of weapons is unfortunately banned in Britain. There were incidents when legally prosecuted people defended using weapons in their houses. Most likely, the authorities should analyse the issue deeply and make radical changes to the system of fighting crime rather than taking [such] superficial measures. [/quote] http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/12/20/37290121.html ***************************************************************************************** Professor Joseph Olson, J.D., LL.M. o- 651-523-2142 Hamline University School of Law (MS-D2037) f- 651-523-2236 St. Paul, MN 55113-1235 c- 612-865-7956 [email protected] http://law.hamline.edu/constitutional_law/joseph_olson.html
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