Posted on 03/27/2002 10:31:00 AM PST by Paul_E_Ester
LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of worried Britons are sharing their beds with a gun and nearly half of them are prepared to kill with it, according to a survey.
"Guns feature alongside baseball bats and hammers among the arsenal kept by almost one in 10 worried householders," security firm Micromark said on Tuesday, citing a telephone survey of 1,000 people.
The company said eight percent of those sleeping next to a weapon had a gun, equating to about 100,000 homes.
But a Home Office spokeswoman said barring special licenses for certain handguns and shotguns, there were only 125,000 licensed firearms altogether in England and Wales.
Crime has become a hot topic in Britain, with street crime up 40 percent in January alone and controversy mounting over a government plan for the early release of non-violent prisoners.
Women were the keenest to resort to firearms, while 44 percent of people opting to sleep with a weapon chose a blunt instrument such as a baseball bat.
"Ten percent of the women who keep a weapon choose a gun, compared to six percent of men," a Micromark spokesman told Reuters, adding that the number of people sleeping with guns was rising.
"Sixty percent of respondents believe people have the right to take the law into their own hands...and nearly half would be prepared to kill in order to protect their family," the firm said.
"These are worrying signals of a public which perceives domestic crime as spiralling out of control," said Martin Burrekoven-Kalvea of the National Neighbourhood Watch Association.
British law does not support the view that an Englishman's home is his castle. Norfolk farmer Tony Martin is serving five years in jail for shooting dead a teenage burglar in his home.
He is just one of many who have taken up arms to protect their homes, according to the poll, which found that gun ownership was 10 times higher in the country than in the city.
Fascinating insight into your personality.
Thank you.
Indeed.
Have the British gone COMPLETELY daft?
Nah.
Absolutely. The term for polls designed to get a desired response are called "push" polls her in the States. I have been the victim of such polls. When it becomes obvious, I stop the questioning and ask who is commissioning the poll. It is usually a socialist group since their preferred means of propaganda dissemenation is outright lies, lies of omission, and half truths. Their agendas would die in the wasteland of bad ideas if the majority of people were educated to the truth. Dumbing down and disarmament is so important because the truth would cause armed ressurection.
"I'd rather face a grand jury five times a day than the medical examiner once."
There was a British angle here.......Holmes said that during the controversy that followed the mistaken-identity shooting of a young Scots businessman by a Houston homeowner, who thought the Scotsman (who'd been out for a long evening of socializing with brews and shots) was "yelling incoherently" and trying to break into the house. There had been some kick-robberies in town, and the homeowner produced a .25-cal. Beretta and fired through a glazed door at the Scotman (what's the bad luck there? Ordinarily you couldn't get a .25 to stop someone if you needed it, unless you emptied the whole clip into his eight-ring), killing him. Britons were outraged; they didn't understand at all, kick-robberies being as yet nearly unheard-of in the U.K.
??? -- surely they mean "cricket bats" instead.
That's odd -- they invented the idea. That expression was coined by an Englishman. William Pitt, wasn't it?
I agree emphatically. They do need more gun control -- Texas style. Feet planted firmly, ....
At close quarters, if you trained up, you could be utterly deadly, even to a man armed with a gun. There's a gonzo type here in America who's been trying to recreate the old swordsman's art. The local alternative paper did an article on him a couple of years ago -- he always shows up at the "Renaissance festivals" with his armory and his period dress. This guy is serious, and I would hate to be the guy who tried to mug him, armed or not. Close enough for a mugger to "do his thing" is just too close to this guy.
Interesting. Over here the press has propagandized the word arsenal to mean any collection of more then one gun and more then two bullets. I've never seen a baseball bat or a hammer considered an arsenal before though.I guess if there is nothing left to criminalize . . .
patent
</tweak>
He did say however in the following sentence, "...Not at the head, where a fatal wound might result. But at some other body part, such as a leg."
Sigh, the good old days. Yes, it'd be nice, but I suppose we have to leave that to you blokes these days.
All we can do now is waive the rules.
If I pull the firearm I pull it to shoot it.
If I shoot the firearm AT someone, I shoot to kill, not maim.
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