US gun lobby blames Dunblane law for big rise in shooting

[Gromit]

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives and a possible 2008 Republican presidential candidate, told ABC News that if students and teachers had been armed at the Virginia Tech they might have been able to stop Cho Seung Hui's slaughter.

Fifty people were killed in 2005-06 in the UK by guns, compared with the US figure for 2004 of 10,654.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us _and_americas/article1695763.ece

Is Mr Gingrich correct?

[suffragette]

I think your figures indicate the crass nature of the comment.

President Lyndon Johnson once said of Gerald Ford that he was so dumb, he couldn't f*rt and chew gum at the same time. I think Newt Gingrich was probably educated by Ford.

[Reverandfunk]

Have you got everything for school Johnny? Homework, apple, satchel, AK47.

Heaven help us all....

[Lonnie]

I think you might find Clanadsanswer to this post most interesting.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Law/Question396 212.html

[suffragette]

The cultural difference between US and UK/Australian citizens on the issue of gun ownership, let alone gun crime is vast and I do not foresee a situation where the people of either nation would allow gun crime to rise to the fetishistic levels tolerated by Americans.

Politicians in the UK/Australia would be far more willing to introduce draconian measures to limit gun ownership/usage/crime in return for votes than American politicians could dream of contemplating.

We may all speak the same language(well, almost!), but our routes towards the shared goal of safety for our citizens is very, very different.