Bruce,

It's worth pointing out that guns in the hands of ordinary cops over here in the UK did not start until the IRA terrorist campaign on the British mainland in the 70s.

Back in the 50s our police were armed with an eighteen inc wooden truncheon, and gun crime was so rare that the shooting of a policeman in West London, was front page headline news for a couple of months, and caused a storm of public outrage. The killer was hanged.

During that decade, the average number of murders in the whole UK was about 200 a year, and guns featured in a tiny percentage of that. I think I'm right in saying that that figure was less than the number in New York City for the same period.

Having armed our police, we now have a gun crime situation that is rapidly approaching American proportions.

I don't expect any pro gun US citizens will admit it, but I know what I make of those facts.

DT