Banning Handguns Produced More Gun Crime in Britain

Following the horrific massacre in Newtown, all liberals can agree that we need still more stringent gun control — something along the lines of what they have in hyper-statist Britain. Let’s see what effect once great Britain’s draconian authoritarianism has had. Here’s a report from 2009:

The latest Government figures show that the total number of firearm offences in England and Wales has increased from 5,209 in 1998/99 to 9,865 last year — a rise of 89 per cent.

In some parts of the country, the number of offences has increased more than five-fold.

In eighteen police areas, gun crime at least doubled.

Tony Blair and his gang of Labour leftists used the Dunblane Massacre as a pretext to inflict the Nazi-esque Firearms Acts in 1997. They banned private ownership of all handguns.

Lancashire suffered the single largest rise in gun crime, with recorded offences increasing from 50 in 1998/99 to 349 in 2007/08, an increase of 598 per cent. …

The number of people injured or killed by guns, excluding air weapons, has increased from 864 in 1998/99 to a provisional figure of 1,760 in 2008/09, an increase of 104 per cent.

If you find this even remotely surprising, please read John Lott’s More Guns Less Crime.

Is there any reason for us to repeat Britain’s foolish mistakes?

On a tip from Ghost of FA Hayek. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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