Originally Posted by
majurey
Couldn't answer what gun, but we should be careful of raw stats. Let's take the one above.
Since outlawing the ownership of guns... OK, that means merely possessing one is now illegal and a crime.
Gun-related crime has nearly doubled... yep, that makes sense. All those people owning guns before who committed no crime but who have decided to hold onto them are now breaking the law. So yeah, I can see how that stat works.
What it does not mean is that violent gun crime has increased two-fold by de facto.
However, violent gun crime is definitely on the rise in the UK. But only last night the BBC were reporting how skewed the media's reporting is on this. Sure, it's increasing, but the real problem is the rate of knife crime which now outstrips gun crime 3-to-1. There were about 3000 cases of gun crime last year and 9000 of knife crime. The latter is a big problem now, which the politicians are getting their knickers in a twist over. Kids as young as 7 or 8 are carrying knives and using them in playground disputes sometimes!
Still, although the proportions might be alarming, I think the numbers are still quite low. 3000 cases of gun crime over the period of a year in the entire population of England (not UK). In real terms, I think that's small in comparison to other nations.