[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by winny

Why are you linking Guns to Violence? What has violence got to do with gun ownership. Violence is is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes.
You don't have to get violent with a gun to make people do what you tell them to do, you just point it.

it's not me doing it, it's the public opinion. I'm perfectly aware that guns don't mean violence, but many are convinced otherwise.
Violence can be related to gun crimes like homicide, but as you said in theory all you need to do is pointing a gun (or something that looks like a gun) to someone to obtain what you need.

Oohh, nice gun

I don't think that the current regulations have anything to do with gun crime, it's a public saftey issue. As you know there are loads of illegal guns in the UK and plenty of armed robberies and shootings. More guns is just that, more guns. If there are more there is more risk.

well, if you kill or threaten someone with a gun, you are committing a crime which of course is a threat to public safety. There aren't that many armed robberies and shootings compared to other countries, and the few that happen are unfortunately localised in specific areas.
I don't care about how many guns people have, I care about an effective system that can assess one's eligibility to own a firearm and an effective monitoring of the person.

So is that your point? The criteria for ownership? What's wrong with the current rules?

Yes. My point is that not only the current rules do not work as they should, and they haven't changed an awful lot since the '90s.

Not only there should be a more effective selection and control, but there should also be a campaign that bring some sense into the matter.

It may not be safer in countries without firearms but there's definitley less chance of getting shot..

I lived in Italy for 28 years and was at gun point twice only because of the job I did, but I have many friends who never even saw a gun apart for when they served in the Army or the sidearm of a police officer. It's all relative to the areas/times/people.

Sorry, but the UK is nothing like Switzerland - The UK is much more like the USA especially the under 30's.

U'd be surprised how the two countries and populations are quite similar actually.. the scenario you depict is more the case of some big cities, like Manchester, London and Liverpool, but the rest of the UK is quite dorment and doesn't really have much of that gang atmosphere that I think you refer to.