Tuesday, October 26, 2004
What is this "Knife Culture?"
Tony Blair, while being a staunch ally in all of our foreign undertakings, is still a liberal. A hawkish liberal, but still a liberal. This article highlights some of his domestic dissonance.
Tony Blair tonight pledged to do more to combat crime, particularly violence involving drink, guns and knives.The Prime Minister said falling numbers of offences means people now have the lowest chance of becoming a victim in over 20 years.But writing in the Daily Mirror, Mr Blair said: “Crime and the fear of crime still cast a shadow over far too many lives and communities.”
Sounds reasonable enough. We have decreased crime, but will strive forth to reach the most favorable state a society could have. Good for them. But then the next sentence:
The article comes after official figures last week showed an 11% leap in violent crime despite an overall drop in recorded offences.
If recorded offences are down, is the leap in crime a murder figure? They catch less people? There are several ways to interpret these numbers, and none of them are good.
“The whole Government are determined to do more to put the law-abiding majority back in charge of communities,” he said.
My answer: legalize guns. Handguns, shotguns, rifles, whatever. If some degenerate tries to violate you, "put the law-abiding majority back in charge," so to speak.
“We need as well to do more to tackle alcohol-related disorder and the gun and knife culture which has developed in parts of this country. I promise we will,” he wrote.
This is a phrase the Brit press loves to bandy about: "the knife culture." Now I don't know what that is, but I own a lot of knives. My theory being, that if you don't have a firearm available, or circumstances are so close quarters it is impossible to deploy a pistol, a knife comes in handy.
In a "culture" where the government has physically removed your firearms, knives are the only tools you have to fall back upon. It's not a "culture", it's the next best thing. And it seems upper class Britain is shocked, shocked I tell you, that people who are precluded from defending themselves with the most effective weapons would fall back upon something as primitive as a knife.
But ban knives and everything will be alright. Until people start filing spoons to a point...
Tony Blair tonight pledged to do more to combat crime, particularly violence involving drink, guns and knives.The Prime Minister said falling numbers of offences means people now have the lowest chance of becoming a victim in over 20 years.But writing in the Daily Mirror, Mr Blair said: “Crime and the fear of crime still cast a shadow over far too many lives and communities.”
Sounds reasonable enough. We have decreased crime, but will strive forth to reach the most favorable state a society could have. Good for them. But then the next sentence:
The article comes after official figures last week showed an 11% leap in violent crime despite an overall drop in recorded offences.
If recorded offences are down, is the leap in crime a murder figure? They catch less people? There are several ways to interpret these numbers, and none of them are good.
“The whole Government are determined to do more to put the law-abiding majority back in charge of communities,” he said.
My answer: legalize guns. Handguns, shotguns, rifles, whatever. If some degenerate tries to violate you, "put the law-abiding majority back in charge," so to speak.
“We need as well to do more to tackle alcohol-related disorder and the gun and knife culture which has developed in parts of this country. I promise we will,” he wrote.
This is a phrase the Brit press loves to bandy about: "the knife culture." Now I don't know what that is, but I own a lot of knives. My theory being, that if you don't have a firearm available, or circumstances are so close quarters it is impossible to deploy a pistol, a knife comes in handy.
In a "culture" where the government has physically removed your firearms, knives are the only tools you have to fall back upon. It's not a "culture", it's the next best thing. And it seems upper class Britain is shocked, shocked I tell you, that people who are precluded from defending themselves with the most effective weapons would fall back upon something as primitive as a knife.
But ban knives and everything will be alright. Until people start filing spoons to a point...
