Gun Politics In The United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom firearms are tightly controlled by law, and while there is opposition to existing legislation from shooting organisations, there is little wider political debate, and no strong public opposition to control. The United Kingdom historically had one of the lowest rates of gun homicides in the world even before gun control legislation became stricter from the late twentieth century. In The United Kingdom there are 0.22 recorded intentional homicides committed with a firearm per 100,000 inhabitants; for comparison, the figure for the United States was 3.0, and for Germany 0.2.
With the exception of Northern Ireland, most police officers in the United Kingdom do not routinely carry firearms outside of tasers However, there were just under 7,000 armed officers in 2009, they carry semi-automatic carbines, and pistols; the Heckler & Koch MP5SF, and Glock 17 were most usually used although a range of weapons are available.
Read more about Gun Politics In The United Kingdom: Shooting Sports, Rampage Killings, Impact of Firearm Legislation, History of Gun Control in The United Kingdom, Firearms Crime
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“War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.”
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976)
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—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“It was evident that, both on account of the feudal system and the aristocratic government, a private man was not worth so much in Canada as in the United States; and, if your wealth in any measure consists in manliness, in originality and independence, you had better stay here. How could a peaceable, freethinking man live neighbor to the Forty-ninth Regiment? A New-Englander would naturally be a bad citizen, probably a rebel, there,—certainly if he were already a rebel at home.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—John Reed (1887–1920)