London's gun control has failed

The U.S. has a second amendment for good reason -- so that people can protect themselves against an overbearing government and against criminals. Gun-control advocates, though, say guns are uncivil and demand they be restricted and eventually outlawed. They are wrong. Instead of reducing crime, outlawing guns increases crime. Innocent citizens may not have guns, but the criminals will just ignore gun laws and then feel safer in attacking the innocent ones.\nBritain's Lain Murray, director of research for the Statistical Assessment Service, said, "One of the great untold stories of the recent American crime drop is that our closest European 'neighbor' -- the United Kingdom -- now surpasses us in virtually every category of crime."\nIn a report released last spring, compared with New York City, London currently has twice as many per capita robberies, assaults and auto thefts, four times as many burglaries, about 50 percent more rapes and almost as many murders. "Londoners should consider taking long vacations in New York. They will be much safer," Murray added. \nBritain, as you may know, banned handgun ownership in 1996. Since then, gun crimes have risen by 40 percent according to http://police.city.london.on.ca. Now London serves as an example to the world of the failure of trying to reduce crime by banning guns. But advocates of the U.S. Second Amendment knew all along such a "quick fix" would not lower crime rates. Groups such as the NRA understood that people are the root of crime, not guns. \nNow that London is learning its lesson, London's Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, is asking religious groups to help combat its crime. Stevens told the Evangelical Alliance in a speech last week that, "Seventy percent of crimes in London are committed by people under 18." The commissioner added, "In a society where young people often lack a sense of moral obligation, the church can play a key role in helping to fill this void. The responsibility for the church, as it is for police, is to engage with young people in particular in a meaningful way." This information is also found on the London's Metropolitan Police Department Web site.\nStevens is correct in implying that it is a people's morality that affects the crime rate, not the number of weapons available. Now London can see that the generation who has grown up with gun restriction is the one committing most of the crimes.\nThe help of London's churches may lower crime, but unfortunately, not all of London agrees with Stevens. Terry Sanderson, a spokesman for England's National Secular Society, voiced disapproval of the commissioner's request that religious groups help tackle crime as noted on http://www.townhall.com. The group feels that churches are exclusive and will offend people in their endeavors to help people become moral. How do people like Sanderson expect to lower crime rates? They don't want guns to be legal, but yet they also don't want to stop crime by handing the problem over to people who can help. \nLondon's pitfall is trying to outlaw instruments that may be used in a crime. There will always be poison, knives, guns, blunt objects and strings to strangle with. \nAccording to the National Center for Policy Analysis, "In the U.S., 33 states have right-to-carry laws. In those states, deaths and injuries from multiple-victim public shootings fell on average by 78 percent."\nLondon should decide to raise people's morality while letting them protect themselves against criminals through gun ownership.