So much for the success story of gun banning and confiscation in Great Britain: Crime statistics reveal that the total number of firearm-related offenses in England and Wales has risen from 5,209 in 1998/99 to 9,865 last year. While these numbers combine both violent and “non-violent” crimes—perhaps an odd way to describe armed robbery—they reveal a tendency for criminals to have confidence in the fact that their victims are helpless to defend themselves.
In terms of evaluating the effects of Britain’s radical gun-confiscation policy, it makes sense to focus less on murder statistics—famously unreliable, as we have seen—and more on total instances of gun-related crime. As predicted by those on the pro-gun side of the coin, a culture in which only criminals are armed is one in which they can operate with impunity.
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