What should you do when your country is beset by “out of control murders” and criminals walk the streets carrying weapons and believing themselves to be “untouchable”?
Well, if you’re England, clearly the solution is to deprive your law abiding citizens of some more of their rights.
Now as a matter of “urgency,” police should carry out random and targeted stop and search to catch weapon wielding thugs backed up with the introduction of a mandatory five year prison sentence for those carrying illegal knives – the same penalty as carrying guns.
I know that we give England a pretty hard time. It is for good reason though; when we see something like this all I can see is England taking another step closer to “Your papers, citizen?” I have a friend from over the pond who oft reminds me that England never had the “gun culture” that the US has, and I agree with him.
My problem with suggestions like the ones above is that it’s not just about guns. Oh sure, right now it’s about getting guns and knives off the street, right up until the government decides that they want to get something else off the street. Since they can already stop and search you without provocation thanks to “gun and knife reduction”, the door to further search and seizures by the state is wide open.
To my reader(s) from over the pond, I have a question. I’m not entirely familiar with your legal system, however it seems to me that something like random stops and seizures of personal property would be illegal. It is over here; we thought it was so important that we wrote it into our Constitution.
Any light that could be shed on the legal aspect of this would be appreciated. The flip side is that it probably doesn’t matter, because unless the citizenry of England stands up and says “No” to increasing governmental intrusions on their daily life, England will continue to slip away.
