By Matt Agorist
In the early 20th century, British citizens were trusted by their government to own firearms. In fact, then-Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the Marquess of Salisbury once said he would “laud the day when there was a rifle in every cottage in England.” However, beginning with a law requiring a permit for handguns, Britain would embark down the slippery slope of a total citizen disarmament, and by 1996, all guns, including handguns, were banned in the UK.
In fact, so scared of its citizens having guns is the United Kingdom that in 2006, the government even banned toy guns under the guise of “reducing violence” with the Violent Crime Reduction Act. Fast forward to 2018 and — as gun rights activists have consistently warned — only criminals and the government have guns.
The result of the incremental stripping of rights has left the citizens of the United Kingdom sitting ducks merely waiting for violent criminals and a corrupt government to take hold. According to multiple new reports, this now seems to be the case.
Scotland Yard has since called an emergency meeting as London is now gripped by unprecedented violent crime. This violent crime spike comes as an ex-senior officer says “police have lost control of the streets.”
Following a massive spike in murders — one that has now passed that of New York City — police chiefs are scrambling to try and tackle knife and gun violence in the city.
“London is currently experiencing an exceptionally high level of gun and knife crime,” the invite to the emergency meeting read, according to the Guardian. “It is important that our response is fully informed by community concerns and any community tensions are rapidly identified, heard and responded to.”
According to the Guardian, among those attending the meeting were the Labour MP for Tottenham, David Lammy, and Nicola Calica-Myall, an activist against knife crime whose own son was stabbed 37 times when he was just 17 and survived.
“It’s important to know that our fears as a community are being recognized and things are in place,” Calica-Myall said, according to the Guardian. “It’s everybody’s problem and more Londoners need to recognize this situation may not go away any time soon.
Indeed, the problem has gotten so out of hand that six teenagers were stabbed this week, in the space of only 90 minutes.
Although many of the solutions proposed with undoubtedly involve more police, the former head of head of diversity and policing, Victor Olisa, warned that police are losing control of public spaces and hit out at senior officials for their “deafening silence.”
“Communities are saying we don’t see the police around anymore,” he said. “It appears to people I have spoken to as though the police have lost control of public spaces and the streets,” the Guardian reports. “The silence from senior officers in the Met is deafening. They should say we need more information from the public, this is what we are doing, this is what the results are.”
The need for police would be drastically diminished if the citizens of London could simply defend themselves. However, that is not an option unless they use sticks or knives (under three inches): a futile choice considering the fact that criminals have illegal guns and knives at their disposal.
Even many police chiefs in the United States understand that police cannot be everywhere to stop every crime. As TFTP has reported, police chiefs across the country have urged that citizens arm themselves because a well-armed citizen is the best defense against crime — not police.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project, where this article first appeared. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook.
If Cruz was armed with only a knife, how many people could he have killed in a crowed school in the same period of time as he did with the M15. Anyone with just a hand gun who goes against some one armed with a semi automatic rifle is taking a knife to a gun fight. The reason why there is such strict gun control in the UK is because of school shootings with a pistol in Scotland years ago, and citizens can still have long guns and shot guns, but they are registered and it takes a long time to get a permit and when that is granted you can be forced to have inspections by the authorities at any time to make sure that they are properly secured. There have been no significant restrictions on the rights of the people since these gun laws went into effect. On these sites I see thing that seem to border on violating the absolute law against leading or advocating the violent overthrow of the government which will probably get some gunner in the US the needle at the prison where Tim McVey died. Read the Preamble of the Constitution to learn what the real roles of government are and you will find the keeping of law and order there.
That’s closer to an understanding of British guns laws than most people get to.
The reason why there are such tight controls on handguns in Britain is down to more than the shooting in Dunblane. There was also another event where a licensed handgun owner shot dead a member of the public, without provocation. Also, one or two handgun owners were abusive to relatives of the victims of Dunblane, and for many people this was the final straw.
After Dunblane, modern handguns (semi-autos and revolvers, centre-fire and rimfire) were made Section 5 (not available to the general public). Cap-lock pistols and carbine pistols are still available to the general public, and are a growth area of the hobby.
After Hungerford, centre-fire semi-auto rifles were also made Section 5. Given the price of bullets in Britain, this is not a major development. Recently, centre-fire semi-auto rifles are back on the menu if configured as straight pull, a development which is of limited impact given that (for good legal reasons) the prices as in the $000s each – comparison with an ATF permitted automatic rifle are useful.
Most people in Britain who want guns, and who are of good character, can get one, and the choice of guns is extensive.
The real thrust of British gun control is regulating WHO gets guns, NOT what kinds of guns people can get. The US gun control lobby has things entirely the wrong way around.
Thank you very much for filling in the details. I just remember the school shooting and why they did the strict gun control. The MP who was killed by both a knife and pistol attack, if I remember correctly, was a very vocal opponent of GB leaving the EU. Which now seems to be something like our great wall – very popular because of propaganda, but not too popular any more as the details go into effect. Thanks again.
“Gun Control: UK Murders Now Skyrocketing as Police Fail to Protect Defenseless Populace”
A great headline, although very inaccurate. The UK government has slashed policing budgets in London, and made some other stupid changes. Combined with wooden-top attitude to dealing with knife crime takes us to the current situation.
An interesting comparison is with Glasgow. This was always a problem area for knife crime, but has made massive inroads into the problem, by taking on board the holistic ideas developed in Boston, USA. And without needing to give everyone a handgun.
May a suggest a headline for your next article?
“Gun Control: UK Fixes Knife Crime By Adopting Thoughtful US Ideas.”
Yeah, OK, I see why that might be a problem for you.
From my cold dead fingers.
Never give in to the fascists that want us to be their slaves.