Friday, June 22, 2012

Greetings from Gunchester

somebody had to use the term "Gunchester" to try and imply that gun crime in the UK was out of control.

I'll use Wikipedia for a brief explanation of the term for that fair city further up the Mersey:
Analysts trace the high rates of gun crime in south Manchester, England, to acute social deprivation in an inner city area south of Manchester city centre stretching from Hulme through Moss Side to Longsight.[1] Whilst by the 1990s, the trade in illegal narcotics and firearms had given rise to Manchester's nickname of "Gunchester", by the late 2000s levels of gang related gun crime had greatly reduced in the area as a whole ".[1][2] The reasons for this transformation are not entirely clear but the heavy sentencing of main offenders and finding new ways of police, agency and community working and co-operation in tackling this kind of crime may have played a key role.
and grab this table as well from the same article:

Gun crime fatalities by area: 1999–2009

Area Year
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 TOTAL
Ardwick - 2 - - - - - - - - - 2
Beswick 1 - - - - - - - - - - 1
Chorlton-cum-Hardy 1 - - - - - - - - - - 1
Chorlton-on-Medlock - - - - - - - - 2 - - 2
Fallowfield - - - - 1 - - - - - - 1
Gorton - - - - - - - - 1 - - 1
Hulme 1 - - - - - 1 - - - - 2
Levenshulme - 1 - - - - - - - - - 1
Longsight 1 2 5 1 - - - - - - 1 10
Moss Side 1 - - - 1 1 - 2 - - - 5
Old Trafford 1 - - - - - 2 - - - - 3
Stretford - - - - - 1 - - - 1 1 3
Whalley Range - 1 - - - - - - - - - 1
Withington 1 - - - - - - - - 1 - 2
TOTAL 7 6 5 1 2 2 3 2 3 2 2 35

Source: Manchester Evening News: "How Many More? Shot dead in Greater Manchester: Accessed 12.12.09".

Wow, 35 dead in a 10 year period! Isn't that what most US cities gun violence rate is in a weekend? Maybe even a bad day?

Well, Gun violence may be out of control by UK standards, but it's incredibly tame by US ones.

Maybe strong gun regulation does work to keep guns out of the hands of the disqualified.

2 comments:

  1. I love how the gun guys try to spin UK violence, trying to make it look like the gun ban there is somehow a bad thing. Funny, the numbers don't lie. And, somehow, the U.K. has remained a democracy and not become a tyranny because of it.

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    Replies
    1. You're right Baldr; guns do not define a democracy, guns define a thugocracy. Gun culture is a culture of violence, it represents individual force aganist other individuals, not the fair force of law and the courts.

      That is why the gun nuts of the NRA represent old white flabby and crabby; they are seeking power in a world where they are no longer dominant.

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