Recently there has been a debate between an individual who runs an anti-knife crime blog and a few UK pro-gun advocates from the Armbritain.com forum. A lot of it is due to a post criticizing Graham Showell from Britain Needs Guns appearance on the Big Questions, with his pro-gun stance on gun control. While I am not a total pro-gun advocate, I do believe fit & proper citizens should be allowed to have access to firearms for hunting, sport shooting and home defence. However, lets get to the point of things…
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
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