Try to guess who wrote this:

"If guns are outlawed," an American bumper sticker warns, "only outlaws will have guns." With gun crime in Britain soaring in the face of the strictest gun control laws of any democracy, the UK seems about to prove that warning prophetic.

1) the NRA
2) some Libertarian weblogger on the war path
3) pro-gun citizens of the UK
4) a liberal UK media outlet

Surprisingly, the answer is 4. While the first three have been saying it for years, now the BBC has gone on record in calling for a loosening of the UK's restrictive gun control laws.

The BBC pulls out every argument that Libertarians and pro-gun advocates have been using for the past decade:

A study found American burglars fear armed home-owners more than the police. As a result burglaries are much rarer and only 13% occur when people are at home, in contrast to 53% in England.

The failure of this general disarmament to stem, or even slow, armed and violent crime could not be more blatant.

Still, in reading reaction to the editorial, it is clear that some citizens of the UK are still not convinced. RK Bulmer of the UK takes the illogical argument:

With around 30,000 gun deaths a year, I think we should look elsewhere than the US for ideas on this subject. More legally-owned guns means more chances for accidental deaths in the home from guns, more teenagers finding their parents' guns and playing with them, more chances for legal guns to be stolen by criminals to be used by criminals.

Accidental deaths from firearms are negligible, and rank right up there with getting run over by your own lawn mower. Besides, you cannot legislate responsible parenting.

Sean Aaron, however, just refuses to see the facts as they've been laid out on the table:

I find this notion ludicrous. We do not need a nation of armed vigilantes (potential or otherwise) to ensure the peace, but rather active citizens who are willing to stand together against crime in their neighborhoods and cooperate with local authorities to apprehend criminals. This is the way to reduce crime. To draw a link between gun ownership and an overall drop in crime in the US is spurious and the article does not have enough evidence to point to a causative relationship between the two.

While Sean's utopian dream world sounds like a nice place to live, I'm not so sure I have faith in standing together in front of the firing squad.. er... against crime? Dreamers like Sean would have us host a big 'love-in', to wash away crime with our good intentions.

Some of the other comments range from the fearful to the downright loony. Mike K apparently sets his TV on his front porch before he goes to bed, while J... well, I don't know what the hell J is talking about.

Allowing homeowners to arm themselves will simply encourage potential burglars to arm themselves, and I don't particularly want to get into a gunfight for a colour television.
Mike K, UK

This is like saying that raising the speed limit in built-up areas will cut pedestrian deaths since cars will spend less time passing through.
J, UK

Meanwhile, J. Canning from the UK and Gordon from Canada play on the irrational idea that guns actually corrupt otherwise law-abiding people:

More availability of firearms in the UK would bring us more Dunblanes and perhaps a Columbine.
J.Canning, UK

Can you imagine the number of mistakes, accidents, acts of temporary insanity, etc. that would result from having guns freely available? I wonder what the police think of this crazy idea - what policeman would dare to investigate a "domestic quarrel" call, not knowing what firepower he might face?
Gordon, Canada

The lack of logic and rational thought of those that support gun control never ceases to amaze me. These gun grabbers clearly have an irrational fear of an inanimate object. They have personified firearms, they have demonized firearms, and clearly they fear firearms. These are the same minded people that march on Washington in support of tyrannical despots like Saddam Hussein. They'd rather trust the thugs of the world to behave or leave them alone than to trust their neighbors with a firearm. It's a recipe for disaster, and I only hope that I'm not there to see it.

(link shamelessly stolen from Dean's World)