Can any of our British 'catters comment on the rate of home invasion and muggings today compared to the pre ban days? I have long felt that if criminals have more reason to believe their victims will be unarmed, they will be more likely to commit the crime in the first place.

Doesn't realy work like that I'm afraid, Mark. Your questions reads as if it was common practice for people in the UK to have guns before the ban and this was not the case. To even own a gun you had to jump through legal hoops. To carry one was, in most cases, an offense anyway. The ban simply made it, in theory, impossible rather than difficult. Well, impossible for honest people that is.

But now we are back to the level playing field argument. I am not sure I agree that to level thing up we should all be allowed to carry a weapon. I would prefer it if the law were carried out properly and that the police were allowed to search those people that they know are likely to have firearms.

But now we are back to civil rights arguments. I am quite happy for law enforcement agencies to have random stop and search. I am happy to carry an identity card. But I am not a criminal. Nor am I the innocent young black lad who is stopped for no reason by police 5 times a day because he fits the 'gangsta' profile. Tough one init?

And so we go round and round.

Cheers

DtG