Paul, the UK law prohibiting hand guns allows for a comparison. Is there a common belief from the citizens, not the politicians, that the law has influenced the downward trend in the UK for all types of crime:
According to the BCS:
In 2005/06 the total number of crimes in England and Wales was around 10,912,000.
Total crime peaked in 1995, and has since fallen by 44%.
In 2005/06 around 23% of the population were the victim of some type of crime.
This has fallen from a high in 1995 of nearly 40% of the population.
http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/page54.asp
Have the public officials, except for those that originated the ban, attributed to the downward trend in crime to the handgun ban or are there other influences ?
I do not recall, excluding the military, does everyone in the UK police force carry a handgun ?
As a starting point, the principle of citizen rights within the context of an orderly society , cannot be removed from the discussion. Once there is a start of restrictions of any type, the next set of restrictions can be implemented with potentially less resistance, even on a gradual basis.
" The Supreme Court on Thursday embraced the long-disputed view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a gun for personal use, ruling 5 to 4 that there is a constitutional right to keep a loaded handgun at home for self-defense.
The landmark ruling overturned the District of Columbia ban on handguns, the strictest gun-control law in the country, and appeared certain to usher in a new round of litigation over gun rights throughout the country.
The court rejected the view that the Second Amendment’s “right of the people to keep and bear arms” applied to gun ownership only in connection with service in the “well regulated militia” to which the amendment refers.
Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion, his most important in his 22 years on the court, said that the justices were “aware of the problem of handgun violence in this country” and “take seriously” the arguments in favor of prohibiting handgun ownership.
“But the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table,” he said, adding, “It is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.”
Justice Scalia’s opinion was signed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr " .