"In which case, why has gun crime in the UK gone up since the handgun ban of 1997?"

Switch brain on Walrus - it's nothing to do with the 'handgun ban', that's a much-over-used red herring. It has much more to do with the way our borders were opened to Eastern Europeans. That's where many of the illegal weapons are coming from, now it's so easy to get in. That and the growth of the use of guns by drug-gangs etc.

But McGrath's right - you're still far, far less likely to be shot, or even see a gun, in the UK than in the USA.