How's That UK Handgun Ban Working?

It's working so well that they're now looking to expand it to cover non-functioning, deactivated handguns as well.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that weapons which have supposedly been converted to make them impossible to fire - including antique weapons - could be banned by the end of the year.

Hey, you could poke someone's eye out with that thing!

File this one under: Solutions in search of a problem.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said deactivated weapons accounted for a tiny proportion of gun crime.

There were four recorded offences in England and Wales in 2005/06 in which a deactivated firearm was used, and a further four incidents involving reactivated weapons, out of a total of 21,521 recorded incidents.

Mr Davis said: "While we welcome any action, however overdue it may be, to tackle the scourge of gun crime, the Government's own figures show that in 2005/06 there were only eight incidents where deactivated or reactivated weapons were used - just 0.04% of gun offences.

It's a veritable epidemic, I tell you!!!

We need sustained action to tackle the other 99.6% of this serious problem, bearing in mind that gun violence has increased four-fold over the last 10 years."

WHAT??? That's impossible!!!

Compare and contrast.

Six years after new rules made it much easier to get a license to carry concealed weapons, the number of Michiganders legally packing heat has increased more than six-fold.

But dire predictions about increased violence and bloodshed have largely gone unfulfilled, according to law enforcement officials and, to the extent they can be measured, crime statistics.

The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined.

Jeff Soyer: Perhaps England should ban burglary and muggings.

Racist.