Given the fact that it has now been 10 years since the 1997 amendment to the 1968 Firearms Act, where 57,000 law abiding Firearms Certificate Holders had their private property confiscated in the name of public safety, do we now think it is time that pistol shooting should be allowed to return to the UK.
Gun crime increased by 40 % between 97-99 and there are now more than double the number of gun crimes than ever before. Is this not a terrible indictment of how banning things for all the wrong reasons simply doesn't work. Its been an offence since the Prevention of Crime Act 1953 to carry an offensive weapon in a public place without reasonable excuse or lawful authority, yet over the weekend 8 young people were either shot or stabbed to death and the latest victim was a 14 year old boy. All this despite record numbers of police.