this was passed on to me by blue gal
i think it's worth a read and more than just a thought,
don't you?







Wouldn't you like to live in a country where fatal
shootings were so rare, so horrid, so noteworthy, that
they make the national news?

Here's the thing - it really is possible.

http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/04/whats-needed-snowdrop-petition-for.html

I remember all too well the day of the Dunblane
massacre, 13th March 1996, because I was visiting
clients in the small Scottish town at the time. A
lunatic with a grudge walked into a school with two
Browning handguns and killed sixteen children aged 5
and 6, along with their teacher. It was a turning
point for the British people, who decided enough was
enough.

A group of parents and friends of the bereaved began a
petition to have all handguns banned. It was called
the Snowdrop Campaign, after the only flower in bloom
in Scotland in March. Within 6 weeks, it had collected
705,000 signatures - and a rival petition by the
pro-gun lobby collected a tenth of that number in a
longer period. The result was stunning. Gun control
became a major campaign issue. Just 29 per cent of
Conservative candidates favoured a total ban on
handguns, compared with 97 per cent of would-be Labour
MPs, and 86 per cent of Liberal Democrats. The
Conservatives, in government for more than a decade,
were resoundingly defeated at the general election and
the new Labour government made legislation which
banned private ownership of handguns a priority of its
first months in office.

According to a report from the Home Office, from
mid-2005 to mid-2006, only 49 people were killed by
handguns (Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate
Violence 2005/2006, page 36). This is a rate of
roughly 1 per million compared to 55 per million in
the US (FBI 2004 Crime report). It turns out that a
mandatory five-year jail term for carrying a hand gun
does have an effect. Of course there have been some
terrible shootings impacting the black community
recently, tied in with gang and drug culture it seems.
But the growth of such incidences is still lower and
they can can be handled in the context of a wider
culture against guns.

If guns are illegal, only criminals with the right
kind of contacts will be able to get guns. You can't
then just drive up to a gun show and buy a gun, no
questions asked. That limits the field considerably.
It excludes, for instance, high school and college
kids. It excludes those who suddenly just flip-out or
have a moment of blind rage in a domestic dispute. It
excludes many dime-store robbers and other petty or
opportunistic criminals. It makes things easier for
police too, who don't have to approach every single
situation as if it might be a shoot-out and can
allocate resources to catching the criminals who do
have the right kind of contacts to get guns, and their
dealers. But it cannot be piecemeal, it must be a
national ban done at a federal level.

If there's anyone out there with the gumption and the
resources to organise a version of the Snowdrop
Campaign in the US, they will have my backing.

Regards, Steve

Cernig - Steve Hynd - Senior Partner, Newshoggers Blog