Guns Are Bad, M'kay? Oh, Hold On a Second...

Seven years after Great Britain banned all handgun ownership, we see unmistakable evidence that gun crime is on a dramatic rise in that country.

Handgun crime has soared past levels last seen before the Dunblane massacre of 1996 and the ban on ownership of handguns introduced the year after Thomas Hamilton, an amateur shooting enthusiast, shot dead 16 schoolchildren, their teacher and himself in the Perthshire town.

It was hoped the measure would reduce the number of handguns available to criminals. Now handgun crime is at its highest since 1993.

Let's see, when Britain passed the handgun ban, many pro-gun ownership types predicted that Britain would eventually see a rise in violent gun crimes as guns became readily available on the black market for criminals, and as criminals lost their fear of an otherwise disarmed populace. The Left called us crazy.

Let's see who has been proven right, thus far:

As well as being converted from air guns and blank firing weapons, handguns are being imported from eastern Europe and beyond. A good quality semi-automatic handgun can be bought on the streets of London for as little as £200.

Heck, even old British gangsters say that it's worse than it ever was:

Notorious underworld figure Joey Pyle agrees. 'In the old days, during the time of the Krays and the Richardsons, people didn't go around with guns on them all the time. You only got tooled up if you were out on a bit of work. That's all changed now. For a lot of people out there, having a gun is little more than a fashion accessory.'

Heh. "...only got tooled up if you were out on a bit of work." You can almost hear the Cockney accent. Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to offend any particular segment of the Great British public. Oh, 'ang on a minnit:

Although much of the blame has fallen on trends in music and fashion, particularly within the black community, which have helped to glamourise weapons, the problem is now spreading into other sectors of society.

Oh, okay. It was a black problem, but now it's sort'a caught on with everybody else.

'It's no longer a black or white issue,' says Lyndon Gibson of the Urban Nation Youth Project. 'These guns are in the hands of the whole community. Guns are everywhere and they are being used by everyone.'

I'm glad they cleared that up.

But the most telling anecdote in the report is this:

Marian Bates, 64, leapt in front of her daughter as one of the two young criminals aimed a handgun at the 34-year-old and demanded gems from the family shop.

Her husband of 42 years, Victor, 64, suffered head injuries in the struggle,

Mr Bates said the gunman had first attempted to shoot him but the weapon misfired. 'My wife ran forward to get between the gunman and my daughter and he shot her dead. She was a brave woman, not at all foolhardy. She was protecting her daughter, like every mother.'

It's too bad that Marian Bates lived in a country where law-abiding citizens were disarmed by legislative fiat. One can never say for sure how an armed confrontation will turn out, but if Marian Bates had had the chance to use something other than her body to protect her daughter, she might be alive to tell the tale of how two "young criminals" learned a lesson in the hazards of robbing an armed citizen.

(Hat tip: Instapundit)