Legalise hand guns.

For those who do not subscribe to the paper in question, this link will take you to a report in the paper, regarding an interview with the leader of the United Kingdom independence party (UKIP). The reason I have posted it is not for the reason you may think; politics and religion fall into the same category, each person has their own idea on both, and who is to say theirs is right and another’s’ wrong. No the reason I draw your attention to the story, the gist of which the UKIP leader has espoused in the past, is the poll run by the paper.

Currently there is a petition, the latest in a line of them, trying to get .22 target pistols allowed back into Home Office approved clubs. When I last looked at the petition it had just over 20,000 signatures (link here http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/62588 ) and has been running for a number of months.

Now compare that with the article in the Daily Telegraph, dated 24/2/15 (link here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10595087/Hand-guns-should-be-legalised-and-licensed-Nigel-Farage-has-said.html ) just four days ago. The poll therein has managed to raise over 129,000 votes in favour, with just under 49,000 against, in four days.

You will see from the figures that no all agree, and the paper spoke to Peter Squires of Brighton University who stated that these proposals were “irresponsible”. Squires is a vehement anti-gun advocate who has a position within ACPO as an adviser, as well as the Home Office. He is also a colleague of Ms. Rebecca Peters of IANSA, an NGO at the UN, and an organisation funded by George Soros, none of whom believe that civilian firearms ownership has a place in the modern world.

But it is worth noting that he has been attributed within the article as saying "It will generate a demand, it will generate illegal traffic around that demand – the problem with hand guns is that they are small and concealable and they are already the weapon of choice of gangs members and criminals.”

If you work backwards through his alleged statement, and I have no doubt that the report is accurate; criminals already have hand guns, and they are the weapon of choice. Therefore there is already an illegal demand and trade in these items, so how will it generate a more illegal trade than the one that currently exists?

Making hand guns legal would indeed generate a demand, namely from honest law abiding members of society, who have undertaken to be investigated by the authorities in order to obtain their guns, people who have not committed, or are ever likely to commit any criminal act.

The current legislation, introduced after the Dunblane mass shooting, was a political over reaction, with a refusal to thoroughly investigate the circumstances. The police forces involved in all the recent high profile shootings, have, in all instances been found wanting; choosing to blame the some 250,000 plus gun owners for their failures.