Note: I tried to find news articles or editorials that would support the position that gun control in the UK is preventing a more serious tragedy in the current riots. If they exist they are hard to find.
If British shopkeepers had the right to bear arms, vicious thugs would think twice before looting By Nile Gardiner World Last updated: August 10th, 2011During the Los Angeles riots in 1992, many store owners in the south central part of the city defended their property against marauding gangs with their own weapons, and succeeded in protecting their livelihoods and thousands of jobs that depended on them. And across the country, Americans admired their bravery, thankful for the Second Amendment to the US Constitution which protects their right to keep and bear arms, and thereby defend themselves, their families and their property. In contrast in London in 2011, shopkeepers were left at the mercy of feral, brutal thugs acting with impunity across whole swathes of the capital as the police were overwhelmed. If they had the right to bear arms and defend their stores with force, it would have been a very different story, and brutal looters would have met firm resistance.
Britain’s gun laws are among the most draconian in the world, yet the nation has some of the highest levels of violent crime and burglary in the West, and there is no shortage of gun crime in major cities such as London and Manchester. While criminal gangs are often able to acquire firearms on the black market, ordinary law-abiding British citizens are barred from owning guns for self-defence.
The riots in London, the West Midlands and the North West should prompt a renewed debate in Britain over the right to bear arms by private citizens. The shocking scenes of looting across the country are a reminder that the police cannot always be relied upon to protect homes and businesses during a period of widespread social disorder. The defence of life and property can never be entrusted solely to the state, not least when there is a complete breakdown in law and order. As we have seen this week in Britain, when individuals are barred from defending their own property from mobs of vicious thugs, sheer anarchy and terror reins.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100100323/if-british-shopkeepers-had-the-right-to-bear-arms-vicious-thugs-would-think-twice-before-looting/ Baseball Bat Sales Rise on Amazon UKBy Ian Paul, PCWorld Aug 9, 2011 12:11 PM
Sales for baseball bats on Amazon UK have risen by more than 6000 percent over the past 24 hours, presumably due to the civil unrest engulfing the island nation. But it's unclear whether the sales of sluggers are due to trouble makers gearing up for a fight or concerned citizens looking after their own interests.
Surely it's not a groundswell of baseball fever?
The most popular bat of choice Tuesday is a 23-inch Rucanor aluminum bat selling for about $28. The item has risen from 6,974 to the 105th most popular sports and leisure item on Amazon UK. The next most popular is a military police baton, which is followed by another five baseball bats ranging in price from $15-$30.
The issue has sparked something of a debate on Hacker News where the baseball bat spike was first noticed. While some argue that a baseball bat would be a great disguised weapon when you're looking to destroy property, others have said shopkeepers and home owners may be purchasing bats to take care of their properth and families amid the chaos. The Guardian has a video showing Turkish shop owners in East London protecting their stores: Several men carry various pipes, sticks, and other implements.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/237616/baseball_bat_sales_rise_on_amazon_uk.html Britain’s in crisis: the real causes of chaos on streetsWednesday 10th August 2011, 2:13am FEAR. Debilitating, widespread fear. The country held to ransom by feckless youths. Thousands of shocked Londoners cowering in their homes, with many shops, banks and offices shutting early. I cannot remember anything like it; the atrocities of the 7/7 terror attacks, the shock from 9/11 and the IRA’s repeated terrorist attacks had a chilling, devastating effect on the capital but it felt different this time. Usually peaceful suburbs were under siege; meanwhile, there was increasing violence in other towns. The government belatedly appeared to regain control in London but the electorate’s trust that the cavalry would show up if they call 999 has been shattered. It no longer feels as if we live in a civilised country.
The cause of the riots is the looters; opportunistic, greedy, arrogant and amoral young criminals who believe that they have the right to steal, burn and destroy other people’s property. There were no extenuating circumstances, no excuses. The context was two-fold: first, decades of failed social, educational, family and microeconomic policies, which means that a large chunk of the UK has become alienated from mainstream society, culturally impoverished, bereft of role models, permanently workless and trapped and dependent on welfare or the shadow economy. For this the establishment and the dominant politically correct ideology are to blame: they deemed it acceptable to permanently chuck welfare money at sink estates, claiming victory over material poverty, regardless of the wider consequences, in return for acquiring a clean conscience. The second was a failure of policing and criminal justice, exacerbated by an ultra-soft reaction to riots over the past year involving attacks on banks, shops, the Tory party HQ and so on, as well as an official policy to shut prisons and reduce sentences. Criminals need to fear the possibility and consequence of arrest; if they do not, they suddenly realise that the emperor has no clothes. At some point, something was bound to happen to trigger both these forces and for consumerist thugs to let themselves loose on innocent bystanders.
***snip***
What they wanted is free money and free goods and so they helped themselves. They were driven by greed, a culture of entitlement, of rights without responsibility, combined with a complete detachment from traditional morality, generalised teenage anger and a sense that anything goes in the current climate. This wasn’t a political protest, it was thievery. It is true, however, that proper welfare, educational and economic reforms may cost money short term; and of course the coalition’s desire to protect so many departments, its failure to root out waste, its refusal to broaden the sources of financing of public services, its desire to increase foreign aid and its acquiescence to handing more cash to the EU has forced it at times to propose the wrong kind of cuts. Obviously spending on law enforcement and prisons needs to be increased. Figures of authority – teachers, parents and the police – must again be given the power to act. We need to see New York style zero tolerance policing, with all offences, however minor, prosecuted. But what matters right now is to regain control, to stamp out the violence and to arrest, prosecute and jail as many thugs as possible. The law-abiding mainstream majority feels that it has been abandoned and betrayed by the establishment and is very, very angry. Boris Johnson and David Cameron must urgently deliver or their careers will be over – and deservedly so.
http://www.cityam.com/news-and-analysis/allister-heath/britain-s-crisis-the-real-causes-chaos-streets#.TkJJ60sp58Y.twitter To watch a video dealing with armed Korean store owners guarding their stores during the LA Riots visit:
Koreans showing off their guns in LA riotshttp://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a05_1235367821This video shows LA store owners shooting at looters:
LA Riots - Gunfight in Korea Townhttp://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3be_1237333767
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