Of interest to everyone in the uk

[nimrod177]

Speeding does not cause crashes. driving recklessly causes crashes, but never simply breaking the speed limit.I don't really take notice of the speed limits. I drive to the conditions of the road. Sometimes driving much faster than the limit, other times much slower, and I have never had so much as a bump in my life. I've been driving since I was 17 and I'm now 34

what a load of rubbish. speeding does cause crashes and sometimes has absolutely nothing to do with road conditions. Outside influences other than road conditions can cause crashes. If you speed then the reaction time to outside influences reduces purely down to your ability to react to them. Your reaction time will remain the same at 50 mph to 80 mph. Your reaction to a given incident does not increase because you are going faster, on the contrary your reaction remains the same however you have less distance to react as you have traveled further. You sir, have been lucky so far. I have passed the advanced driving course and dabbled years ago in a bit of motor sport. This did not prevent two fully grown roe deer from trying to take up residence on the bonnet of my car and under the wheel of the drivers side. I was driving just below the speed limit on a dry road and perfect visibility. Those two roe deer cost me a new front wing tracking arm front grill and near heart attack. I was very lucky that nothing was coming the other way as the impact caused the vehicle to bounce across the road onto the opposite carriageway. Sorry, when i say car i was driving a big 4x4. If i had been driving a car god knows the outcome. If you keep driving much faster than the limit fine. the road conditions may be great. You may be the best driver in the world and i am sure formula one will be signing you up very soon. However even the best of the formula one guys all driving in the same direction with all their safety equipment have accidents. ask ayrton senna!

[Bjacobs571]

You say "The OP claims 1949 deaths in the years 2010/11 through the illegal use of firearms. "

but the figures in the orginal posts says

"The OP claims 1949 deaths and injuries in the years 2010/11 through the illegal use of firearms. "

that is why you don't agree with his figures you misread them

[LongReinette]

I'm not so sure if those prove anything either way. Gun crime was rising steadily before the ban, it's kept rising but possibly at a slower rate than it would of if handguns weren't banned? Who knows? Clearly it didn't make the impact they made out it was going to make but no one can be sure of what really would of taken place

Its possible that gun crime would have risen at a higher rate with out the ban. It may even be probable. But what the figures indisputably show is that legally held firearms are not the primary drivers behind the use of firearms in crime.

The anti-gun brigade always like to point to the US and the high crime and murder rates there correlated with the high level of gun ownership there. But across the border in Canada, they have a very low murder and violent crime rate and gun ownership dwarfs even that of the US. Hell, most houses in Switzerland contain assault rifles, yet its one of the safest places to live in.the.world.

Gun crime is only loosely linked to gun ownership rates. Its more about a culture of criminal violence than anything else.

The majority of armed crime is still carried out with shotguns <snip>
tac

Is that true? I would have thought the majority of gun crime involved replicas, fake guns, toy guns, bananas in socks, fingers in pockets, converted starter pistols and flare guns, and illegally imported handguns from the US, eastern Europe and other parts......

[LeeN]

[QUOTE=LongReinette;5673676]Its possible that gun crime would have risen at a higher rate with out the ban. It may even be probable. But what the figures indisputably show is that legally held firearms are not the primary drivers behind the use of firearms in crime.

The anti-gun brigade always like to point to the US and the high crime and murder rates there correlated with the high level of gun ownership there. But across the border in Canada, they have a very low murder and violent crime rate and gun ownership dwarfs even that of the US. Hell, most houses in Switzerland contain assault rifles, yet its one of the safest places to live in.the.world.

Gun crime is only loosely linked to gun ownership rates. Its more about a culture of criminal violence than anything else.



Is that true? I would have thought the majority of gun crime involved replicas, fake guns, toy guns, bananas in soc

Hi

Switzerland has a much larger number per head of population than the UK it seems. Also looks like if guns are available they tend to be preferred for suicide
What is really worrying is the massive difference in unintentional death........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ted_death_rate

[fridgemann]

Swiss servicemen are given the opportunity to buy their automatic rifles on leaving the service which most do, but they must be adapted by law to semi automatic, it was actually a legal requirement in Switzerland for many years to own a rifle if one wished to get married, and airgun laws are different in that co2 and air powered guns that produce more than 7.5 joules (5.5 fpe) are considered to be firearms.#

Back to the speed issue...

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), road traffic accidents kill more people around the world than malaria, and are the leading cause of death for young people aged five to 29 – especially in developing countries. Each year up to 50 million people are injured in traffic accidents, globally.

I don't think speed alone can be blamed for people dying on our roads, if you look at the number of reported deaths from road traffic accidents per hundred thousand of population (source: World Health Organisation(http://www.theguardian.com/global-de...angerous-roads) in 2012 there were 5.4 reported deaths in the UK and 6 in Germany. Given that the Germans have an advisory speed limit on their Autobahns of 130kmh and we have a maximum of 112kmh, if speed were the only culprit in road deaths then surely there would be a lot more reported deaths in Germany than what the WHO have stated in their report? No?

I have driven in lots of countries throughout Europe and, the one in which I felt most at risk to myself and my vehicle was Romania. That was in 1994 and we couldn't drive fast because of the state of the roads and the traffic, lots of horses and carts with no lights.

Maybe we should stop blaming speed and start looking at what and how we teach our young drivers, my wife is German and whilst learning she was made to drive on the Autobahn at 200kmh, now she hates it if I do 160kmh!

And you don't have to take my word for it, but thanks for reading anyway...

[riflehunter583]

it seems that whatever laws have been introduced, they have not improved the situation that for shaw.

and innocent law abiding people who own guns and use them within the law are penalised for it and the easy target for politicians, police forces and the general public.

Perhaps the police should be better at controlling the black market in gun movements, as this is where the real police work is, not with all the red tape for poor old law abiding shooters

[Mancbenn]

My son came back from the gym the other day and told me that someone had left a full shotgun cartridge belt hung up and left unattended. It amazes me that somebody with such a low IQ could get a shotgun license, it honestly makes me laugh out loud!

[Ryaz]

Theres always going to be people who cause injury to others nomatter what weapons they can get hold of. restrict knives and sports equipment such as baseball bats? i dont think so

[PeterHepple]

What we have always stated: "Once guns are criminalised, only criminals will have guns!"

[cornish guy]

How many criminals would try to rob or molest or normal citizen or shopkeeper if there was the possibility they had a pistol to defend themselves, where are our rights to defend ourselves. Surely we need those rights as criminals do not recognise the law. Off my soapbox now.

[Zach]

Those number seems vary possible to me! With-in the the USA the states that have more strict gun laws you will be more likely to be a victim of a volent crime.
People kill people and a gun is just there tool of choose.

[william#]

The uk laws are crazy i agree.

And is why i have only just got another rifle (just did not want the potential hassle plus the stigma about guns).

The barmy thing is you can produce all the evidence you want but seems to fall on deaf ears.

[Belchy]

Interesting thread especially for those like me who are new to the sport

[unicorn]

basc have been fighting this for over a year as far as i know

[unicorn]

basc have been fighting this for over a year as far as i know