YankeeJim:
CharlemagneRH: For any sane individual
Key qualification. The problem is this is lost on survival of the best armed. The mentality is a lost cause.
Even if "survival of the best armed," as you have put it, in regards to protection against tyranny, had nothing to do with the issue, you still have to question the effectiveness of gun control.
How many people could the average UK police officer, if he/she went on a shooting spree, kill before being stopped?
There's tons of UK officers that carry MP5s or something similar... some sort of high-capacity semi/full-auto. I'd guess that a UK officer could kill 100 people before another officer responded to the call and showed up to stop the officer on the shooting spree.
So what's stopping a whackjob from becoming an officer in the UK and doing this? Basically nothing. They'd just have to be able to pass some training courses and maybe a mental health exam or two, which is probably pretty easy... all you'd have to do is say that you are looking to preserve the rule of law, defend against terrorists, defend the royal family, etc... and you'd get a clean bill of mental health. It probably wouldn't be very difficult for a complete nut to keep his cool and say the things that the mental health examiners want to hear. This basically means that being able to go on a shooting rampage in the UK requires only that you (1) not have a violent crime on your record, and (2) be a good citizen for a few years, which are the exact same requirements as a background check in the States. Despite all the hoopla about how effective UK gun control is, the only difference is that in the UK, you'd have a shiny badge to go along with your gun.
Simply put, unless every single person in the UK is disarmed, then the chance that a nutcase will be able to get their hands on a gun and go on a shooting spree is exactly the same. There is no magic spell that a UK police department can cast on its officers to see if they're good or bad. It's a background check and what basically amounts to a mental health exam, just like it is in the States.
The only real difference, then, is a cultural one. In the UK, people have enough tact to not shoot a few hundred bullets into a crowd. America, on the other hand, has quite a few people that have played too many video games and are itching to shoot a mall up. That's what it boils down to.
The UK still manages to be a backwards sh*thole, however...
Video makes me laugh every time I watch it.
Moron cops love taking orders so much that they'll take orders from a disheveled, drunk, ranting lady to go harass normal citizens doing nothing wrong. What idiots. AND THIS IS WHO THEY TRUST WITH GUNS!!! LOL!!
10 ORDER RECEIVED: HARASS CITIZEN
20 USE VAGUE LAW TO HARASS CITIZEN
30 LET DRUNK INSANE LADY WALK AWAY
40 BEEP BEEP BOOP BOOP BEEP
What a well-adjusted gunowner she is... lmao.
LMAO... this stuff is better than Comedy Central.