"Criminal gun possession in the UK, whist becoming more prevalent, is still rare and those guns themselves aren't state of the art."
I don't think that the gun's not being state of the art is much consolation if you're shot.
As usual statistics can be made to tell all sorts of tales. The statistics at http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:iWHqAwnJi7UJ:http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7654/CBP-7654.pdf%2Bgun+crime+statistics&cr=countryUK|countryGB&complete=0&hl=en-GB&gbv=1&tbs=ctr:countryUK|countryGB&ct=clnk#9
show an impressive decline in offences. However the start date of this table avoids the even more impressive rise before that in the figure here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6960431.stm
Biting the hand that feeds IT
