I don’t believe you. You may well have read that claim in some tabloid trash but I guarantee it won’t have been as straight forwards or as ridiculous as you’ve described.
Interestingly, I’ve heard the opposite impression from an American who moved to the UK. The question is are they working on actual risk or just their exaggerated perception of risk? People who can afford to migrate to the US could afford to live in parts of the UK that are just as safe (and vice-versa).
I certainly perceive it safer here in the US, though that wasn't why I emigrated here from the falls in the U.K.
In my conversations with the British expats, many are stunned to walk into shops and find product sitting out on shelves available to be picked up by anyone, while in the UK such was an open invitation for brazen theft. Fears of home invasions, simple assaults, etc. they found much reduced living in the United States. One individual I spoke with had faced prosecution when he had simply used his fists to fend off an unprovoked criminal assault upon himself and his then-fiancee. The prosecution had even offered to pay the legal fees of the ASSAULTER to try and secure his testimony because they wanted to "make an example" of him for daring to resort to defensive violence! In the end, they found living in the United States an astonishingly refreshing change of pace, and both the man and his wife were happily shopping for self-defense firearms and pursuing tactical training classes.
That’s complete and utter trash! Our shops are laid out in exactly the same way as American ones. The fear of maybe, actual incidence depends much more on which part of either country you’re comparing. Move from East London to rural mid-America I’m sure it’d be much nicer but move from rural England to central Chicago and it’d be very different. Well you’ve only one side of the story there and only his word he was an entirely innocent party (in my experience, such things are rarely entirely one-sided). He clearly wasn’t actually convicted of anything serious though or he wouldn’t have been able to migrate to the US at all. If they feel so much safer and more secure over there, why would they feel the need to be armed?
A frequent type of assault I have personally witnessed more than one at home in Pubs but have never seen here, is glassing. Get in a verble row in a pub there and you risk a glassing...you might say it's a cultural thing.
post: 1067381438, member: 51921"]That’s complete and utter trash! Our shops are laid out in exactly the same way as American ones. The fear of maybe, actual incidence depends much more on which part of either country you’re comparing. Move from East London to rural mid-America I’m sure it’d be much nicer but move from rural England to central Chicago and it’d be very different. Well you’ve only one side of the story there and only his word he was an entirely innocent party (in my experience, such things are rarely entirely one-sided). He clearly wasn’t actually convicted of anything serious though or he wouldn’t have been able to migrate to the US at all. Sylvia Trent-Adams [/QUOTE] Most people in the U.S. are not a threat to anyone, however, there are many Violent minorities that hate White people and see hurting them and robbing them as Justified restitution for slavery and racism perceived social injustice.
How you "feel" is irrelevant. Most people that are murdered in their own homes probably felt safe right before it happened.
Not to dispute the point, but I've seen photographs that show a pretty dramatic difference in the layouts. Experienced personally? Clearly not. Have I heard enough to doubt your assertions....? Primarily they simply like having the freedom of self-determination and having the option. They also recognize that nowhere is utterly free from danger, and they like being able to take responsibility for themselves. And let's be honest: guns and shooting have the added benefit of being a highly rewarding and challenging hobby as well.
So what are you implying? Do you want criminals and terrorists to have easier access to firearms so that elderly people and women can defend themselves? We have far fewer murders and firearm offences are extremely rare. We do not need to own guns to ''feel' safe in the UK. The vast majority of British people are very happy with tight gun controls and the very low gun ownership in the UK. Just because you live in a country so awash with firearms you feel the need to be armed to feel safe does not mean we want the same. Last mass killing in the UK? 21 years ago. Enough said...................
Maybe not quite enough. Seven years ago: "The Cumbria shootings was a killing spree that occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, Derrick Bird, killed 12 people and injured 11 others before killing himself in Cumbria, England" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbria_shootings 12 years ago: "2005, 7 July: 7/7 central London bombings conducted by four separate Islamist extremist suicide bombers, which targeted civilians using the public transport system during the morning rush hour. Three bombs were detonated on three separate trains on the London Underground and one on a double-decker bus. 56 people were killed and 700 were injured. It was the UK's worst terrorist incident since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the first Islamist suicide attack in the country." About a month ago: "2017, 22 March: 2017 Westminster attack - Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old British man, born in Kent as Adrian Elms, drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, before crashing the vehicle into the Palace of Westminster's perimeter. He then entered the grounds of the Palace of Westminster, the meeting place of the Houses of Parliament, before being confronted by a police officer, whom he stabbed before being shot himself. The attack is being treated as an act of terrorism motivated by Islamic extremism. 5 dead, 49 injured."
Criminals and terrorists have all the access to firearms they need. The growing terrorism threat in France is sufficient proof of that. The British are very happy with tight gun controls because they prefer to be ruled and refuse to accept responsibility for themselves. Low gun ownership? Great. That's why your violent crime rate is so much higher than ours. I don't own guns because being armed "makes me feel safe". I own firearms because I enjoy them as a hobby AND because I prefer the ability to defend myself, not be forced to wait for someone else to do it for me.
Many of the shops I've seen in America were almost interchangeable with their UK equivalents. I'd be honestly interested to see the pictures you're talking about because the image you painted of UK shops simply didn't reflect any kind of reality I've seen, hence my reaction. I suspect there is some specific context being missed. Sure, it just seemed an odd leap to go from talking about how much safer they felt in the US straight to how they were both buying guns specifically for self-defence.
I'm not sure I get this. Are you saying the British violent crime rate is much higher than the US? http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Violent-crime/Murder-rate-per-million-people 42 for the US, 11.6 for Britain.
Then he should be more careful in what he writes, and he was still wrong. Cumbria was seven years ago.
I think many people would have understood the context. Seven years is not too bad for a mass shooting - when was the last one in the US?
Do you not think the ability to legally acquire, keep and carry firearms for self protection might not be a part of that feeling of safety?
If we talk violent crime rates minus homicide we see that the UK's violent crime rate is far HIGHER per capita than in the United States. Assaults, home invasions, etc. are all much higher per capita in the UK.
Criminals knowing that their victims are likely to be unarmed inside or outside the home only serves to embolden them to commit robbery, muggings, rape, burglary and home invasion.
I found this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States#International_comparison Which shows that UK robbery rates are higher, but murder and rape much lower.
If that were true our terrorists wouldn't have to use cars or machetes to attack us. The British are happy with tight gun controls because it means criminals don't have easy acess to firearms. As for more violent crime, you can't compare figures easily because of the different way crimes are recorded. However if you put the time into analysing the data it becomes clear that the USA is more violent. https://dispellingthemythukvsusguns.wordpress.com/
That has been the case for some time. "England and Wales have the highest crime rate among the world's leading economies, according to a new report by the United Nations. The survey, which is likely to prove embarrassing to David Blunkett, the Home Secretary. shows that people are more likely to be mugged, burgled, robbed or assaulted here than in America, Germany, Russia, South Africa or any other of the world's 20 largest nations." David Bamber, "England has worst crime rate in world," The Daily Telegraph," 12/1/2002.
