You say that we are being insensitive for criticizing Lucy Cope because she lost her son to some loon who shot him dead (I will add that any sort of death, whether it be from a stabbing, shooting, car accident or even natural causes are devistating, and I do feel for those who have lost their families & friends from killings). However, like what was quote on one of your blog posts, it doesn’t make her immune from criticism. I personally found her arguments illogical and was coming from an very emotional point of view. I should also mention I feel she was attacking the wrong people (e.g. sport shooters) and seems to be venting out all her frustration and anger from the loss of her son on these people.

Also, she was ignoring/dodging points made by others on the show. For example, Peter Shilton argued that you cannot ban the gun since it is part of the world, our armed forces uses them and that criminals will always have access to firearms. He also mentioned that if someone was to have a flip out moment, they may try to seek connections to get their hands on a firearm. Lucy pretty much ignored what he said and mentioned about the boy who was shot dead with an illegal uzi submachine gun and pretty much said “ban all firearms”.

I should point out one of my most used and strongest argument against a total ban on firearms (Especially replica, airsoft and bb guns) is that while guns do not grow on trees, they can be made in clandestine factories located in backyard sheds, basements and even people’s bedrooms. One man by the name of Philip Luty (Who lives in the north Leeds suburb of Tinshill in the county of West Yorkshire) was not so fond of the UK’s handgun ban back in 1997, so he decided to prove to the world that it is possible to construct a firearm with stuff that could be found at a hardware shop. In just 6 months, he cracked the code and built a 9mm submachine gun (pictured to the right) entirely out of various steel tubing’s, shaft collars and a few bits and pieces. He made a book outlining how his creation is made in detail. Of course, he doesn’t mean to arm the criminals but to give those who need a gun the most (e.g. Those living in countries where crime is dangerously high, armed resistant forces and those who want a gun for SHTF scenarios). However, he did get in trouble from the authorities and was sentenced to 5 years to prison (and was not eligible for parole ).

I will make a follow up post, providing more counter arguments since I felt I needed to do this post right now. I will gladly accept all responses, even if you sound like a douchebag (I believe in free speech!).

Take care

DISCLAIMER: UNKNOWN1730′s BLOG DOES NOT ADVOCATE THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIREARMS AND IS ONLY PROVIDING SUCH INFORMATION FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN ACTIONS AND UNKNOWN1730′S BLOG WILL TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY.

I just want to put it out their that the handgun was more than likely to have been illegally owned. Why you might ask?

Mr White has a record for a handgun offence and a cocaine charge, the police spokesman said. Lee also has a record, Duhamell said, but he did not know the details.

The parents were obvious felons if they have gained drug and firearms offences (yes, in America there is such thing as a firearms offence).

However, like every other killing, they are nonsense and I give my full consolidates to the victims family for their loss. I apologize for offending anyone, I just had to get it off my chest.

According to this article, Mexican prison guard allow inmates to go out, give them weapons and go out and kill people for drug related reasons. Just goes to show how corrupt Mexico is (Not that anyone knew that already!).

Mexican prison guard let inmates out for massacres

There are many in the anti-gun lobby who argue that all guns that are in criminals hands were once legally owned firearms. That might be true and all, but not for ones supplied by Grant Wilkinson. For those of you who don’t know, Grant Wilkinson is a convicted gun manufacturer who bought 90 blank firing Mac 10′s and converted them to fire live ammunition. The guns were sold off to criminals at around £1500 to £2500 and have been involved in 51 incidents, including 9 fatalities which include PC Sharon Beshenivsky. About 50/90 of the guns have been recovered by police and police are rewarding £10,000 for the discovery of the remaining weapons. Wilkinson was convicted of nine charges including conspiracy to convert an imitation firearm and conspiracy to sell and transfer firearms.

What I am showing you here is an example of a criminal who saw the demand for guns in the black market. Driven by profit, he set up a clandestine factory, bought the blank firers and went his way. I could actually see this happening at a much larger scale if the legal market was abolished and smuggling became more of a hassle. Don’t get me wrong, I am 100% for making sure criminals, mentally ill and those who are a danger to society are not allowed to possess a firearm. But the fact of the matter is guns will not simply go away if legislation was passed to ban all firearms.

The gun is not a particularly complex weapon, as a matter of fact, anyone who has access to a dremel could make one trip to the hardware store and get materials to make a .22 calibre single shot zip gun (as pictured to the right). And honestly, IMO, a zip gun could be almost as bad as a semi auto pistol or revolver since either the person would practice to make the shot count or they would carry a couple zip guns.

There are also publications showing how to make submachine guns in clandestine weapons factories. One book called Expedient Homemade Firearms shows how to make a 9mm submachine gun from materials which could be bought from your local hardware store without the need of a lathe or milling machine. Ok, the gun wouldn’t be like an MP5 but it would still be workable. Another book is the Do it yourself submachine gun which not only shows how a submachine gun could be made, but how it could be made in clandestine situations at larger scales. I will say unlike the previous book, it is a more complicated weapon which requires machining, however the end result is an uzi-like submachine gun which matches military standards.

While it might be uncommon in your area for shootings to occur and that most of the killings are committed with knives, that could change overnight. All it takes is a group of thugs to invest (lets use the do it yourself submachine gun as an example) and make UZI style submachine guns and start passing them on to anyone who wants a gun. Then what could happen is some sort of butterfly effect where other thugs decide to again cash in the gun market and sell off guns to feed the demand of illegal guns. All of a sudden, your area turns into LA with gangs tooled up with UZI style submachine guns (Keep in mind this is just a theory of mine and that I DO NOT condone such acts and I support authorities 100% on cracking down the illegal guns market).

In conclusion, the illegal guns market doesn’t need  to rely on stolen guns or guns bought from straw purchases. People like Grant Wilkinson would simply set up clandestine factories and manufacture firearms. And they probably wont go and make single shot .22 handguns, they would make 9mm submachine guns. It may be all fist fights and knives in your neighbourhood, but it could all of a sudden turn into the streets of LA.

p>”If we can restrict the access, if we can make it really hard for people to access these weapons, we just reduce the likelihood of people possessing them and of course committing certain assaults.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/29/2967608.htm

My god! If anything I am sick of hearing from politicians, I am sick and tired of hearing how they will “crackdown on weapons” yet they won’t do A THING towards youth violence or gang violence. It’s like some sort of band-aid solution to a problem they aren’t thinking to the problem logically (Then again, when was the last time politicians did anything right!).

Another problem with the crackdown on “weapons” is that majority of the weapons they “crackdown” on are the ones LEAST USED in the streets. Flick Knives (switchblade for you Americans) , Balisongs, Daggers are most likely not used AS MUCH AS kitchen knives, screwdrivers or even ballpoint pens. They have said it over and over again when they do the “so called” weapons amnesty or announcing the weapons seized from the idiot stop and searches that kitchen knives are the no. 1 seized weapons.

However the media and politicians like to fabricate to the masses that most of the weapons used in attacks are $800 microtech OTF flick-knives/switchblades or $150 Benchmade griptillians (Which most who buy them, buy over the internet) rather than the $2 steak knife that is on many peoples knife blocks.

Then again, elections are coming up and this can easily win the votes of the ignorant in todays world. Oh well, we all know that its all for the votes and political power which politicians care about the most.

Oh and before I forget, I have one question for those banning these exotic knives and other weapons (I am not refering to firearms in this article), how do you ban this? (Which can be made from parts bought at hardware stores and various suppliers)