Britain outlawed handguns in 1997 and has stringent controls on the ownership of other firearms.  This has not deterred the criminals, however.

Guns were used in 4,120 robberies last year - a 10% jump - including a 9% rise to 1,439 in the number of street robberies where guns were used.

There was also a rapid and unexplained increase in the number of times householders were confronted in their own homes by armed criminals. Residential firearms robberies show a 46% leap, a record 645 cases in England and Wales - up 204 on the previous year and four times the level recorded in 2000-01.

Actually, the explanation is quite obvious.  The criminals know that it is very unlikely that the average household will have a firearm, therefore it emboldens them.  At least in America there is a good sporting chance that they might walk into the OK Corral.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Friday, January 26th, 2007 at 9:28 pm and is filed under Firearms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.