Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Neil Barker wrote:
I simply asked you why handgun crime has more than tripled in the years
since handguns were banned in the UK. Your answer to that is ?

And I asked you for your explanation why. But of course got no answer.

Well, it seems as if the handgun ban is having no effect on the number
or price of guns available illegally. It was argued by politicians at
the time that handguns in private ownership were the ones that ended up
in the hands of criminals. This was despite their being no evidence to
support the claim. All legally held guns had their serial numbers
registered, so tracing an illegal gun back to the owner who had been
negligent or who had disposed of a weapon illegally should have been
easy. Yet I can recall few, if any, prosecutions of legal owners of
handguns for selling/disposing of their guns to criminals.

The Metropolitan police state that the reason for the increase in gun
crime is the fall in the price of illegally imported weapons. Apparently
it is now possible to buy a handgun for between £200 and £300. The
police claim that the reason for this is that the guns are being
imported from Bosnia.

It would seem that the statement made by those who shoot safely and
legally in the UK that the ban was an over-reaction to a tragic event
that would not reduce the availability of hand guns to criminals was
correct. Since gun crime is high at close to 6000 incidents a year and
is rising, despite there being no legal source of handguns in the UK.

Did you have an alternative explanation?