Reply #23: Sorry, no links... [View All]

[Firethorn]

I've read about this a number of times.

In the UK you can be prosecuted for carrying a weapon if you possess anything 'in a public place' that you brought along to use as a weapon to defend yourself.

There have been people prosecuted for carrying canes, umbrellas, etc... when they didn't 'need' them.

They've been cracking down on knives, I saw one proposal to ban all pointed kitchen knives.

Heck, one WTF moment I had was when I read an article about how they were removing fire exinguishers from the common areas of an apartment complex.

In many of the stats I've read, Britain now exceeds the USA for violent crime, and in many cases, it's violent crime against innocent parties much more so than the USA. In the USA, most murders, for example, are felon on felon. Surveys of burglaries, for example, found that you were far more likely to be burgled in the UK than the USA.

I attribute a lot of it to the virtual banning of self defense. They say that the police should handle protecting the people, then fail to provide enough police protection for the people. Hot burglaries(where the residents are home) are three times the rate as the USA. A burglarer in the USA will spend far more time making sure the house is empty precises because he's afraid he'll be shot by the residents. A UK burgler has far less to worry in that regard.