Carl N. Brown
Member
Over the years I have paid more attention to what Colin Greenwood has had to say on British gun laws and gun crime, than to politicians or media.
Colin Greenwood, Superintendent, West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police,
writing in 1972 about the effects of half a century of UK gun control
from the 1920 Firearms Act to the 1968 Firearms Act, in
Colin Greenwood, "Firearms Control", (Routledge & Kegan
Paul, London, 1972):
Comparing the effects of the 1988 restrictions on shotgun certificates, Greenwood concluded "It might be possible to conclude that the law has an immediate effect on the law abiding, but that criminals, by definition, do not obey the law."
''Restricting Handguns'', ed. by Don B. Kates, North River Press, 1979,
includes extensive extracts from Colin Greenwood on pages 33 through 55.
Colin Greenwood & Joseph Magaddino, "Comparative Cross-Cultural Statistics", in Restricting Handguns 39 (Don Kates ed., 1979).
Colin Greenwood wrote a critique of of the 2006 Home Office Research Study 298, Gun Crime: The market in and use of illegal firearms. He observed:
The charts are six years before, 1997, and six years after.
Colin Greenwood, Superintendent, West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police,
writing in 1972 about the effects of half a century of UK gun control
from the 1920 Firearms Act to the 1968 Firearms Act, in
Colin Greenwood, "Firearms Control", (Routledge & Kegan
Paul, London, 1972):
"No matter how one approaches the figures, one is forced to the
conclusion that the use of firearms in crime was very much less when
there were no controls of any sort and when anyone, convicted criminal
or lunatic, could buy any type of firearm without restriction. Half
a century of strict controls on pistols has ended, perversely, with a
far greater use of this class of weapon in crime than ever before."
Comparing the effects of the 1988 restrictions on shotgun certificates, Greenwood concluded "It might be possible to conclude that the law has an immediate effect on the law abiding, but that criminals, by definition, do not obey the law."
''Restricting Handguns'', ed. by Don B. Kates, North River Press, 1979,
includes extensive extracts from Colin Greenwood on pages 33 through 55.
Colin Greenwood & Joseph Magaddino, "Comparative Cross-Cultural Statistics", in Restricting Handguns 39 (Don Kates ed., 1979).
At first glance it may seem odd, or even perverse, to suggest that statutory controls on the private ownership of firearms are irrelevant to the problem of armed crime, yet that is precisely what the evidence shows. Armed crime and violent crime generally are products of ethnic and social factors unrelated to the availability of any particular type of weapon. The numbers of firearms required [to arm criminals are minute in comparison to the overall number in private hands], and these are supplied no matter what controls are instituted. Controls have had serious effects on legitimate users of firearms, but there is no case either in the history this country [England] or in the experience of other countries, in which controls have been shown to have restricted the flow of weapons to criminals or in any way to have reduced armed crime.
Colin Greenwood wrote a critique of of the 2006 Home Office Research Study 298, Gun Crime: The market in and use of illegal firearms. He observed:
The 1997 legislation deprived 57,000 people of their property, removed 160,000 handguns from circulation and cost many millions of pounds in compensation. If the effects of that legislation can not be evaluated, then the whole discipline of criminology is a waste of time. If the ban on handguns had any effect in protecting the public, the date on which it came into effect must be reflected in figures for homicide and robbery involving a pistol. The figures for England and Wales for six years before and after 1997 are shown below. .... The pattern of pistol use in homicide is progressively upwards whilst the pattern in robbery shows that the numbers were falling but then rose sharply, only to fall back again. The only conclusion is that the ban imposed by the 1997 Act was simply an irrelevance.
The charts are six years before, 1997, and six years after.
Code:
Homicides
Year Total Sawn-off
Homicide Firearms Shotgun Shotgun Pistol
1991 725 55 25 7 19
1992 681 56 20 5 28
1993 675 74 29 10 35
1994 727 66 22 14 25
1995 753 70 18 10 39
1996 679 49 9 8 30
1997 753 59 12 4 39
1998 731 49 4 7 32 *
1999 761 62 6 13 42
2000 850 73 12 2 47
2001 858 97 20 1 59
2002 1045 81 20 3 40
2003 858 68 7 4 35
Robberies
Total Total Sawn-off
Year Robbery Firearms Shotgun Shotgun Pistol
1991 45,323 5296 381 650 2988
1992 52,894 5827 406 602 3544
1993 57,845 5918 437 593 3605
1994 60,007 4104 274 373 2390
1995 68,074 3963 235 281 2478
1996 74,035 3617 224 232 2316
1997 63,072 3029 121 178 1854
1998 66,172 2973 138 193 1814 *
1999 84,277 3922 138 217 2561
2000 95,154 4081 98 199 2700
2001 121,375 5323 143 201 3841
2002 108,045 4776 101 174 3332
2003 101,195 4117 98 148 2799
*From 1998 onward the figures are for the financial
year to 1st April of the following year.