I cannot believe that your being serious. The handgun in the UK has not been a legal item for many years now. Why should it. This is Britian, not the wild west!!! I fully understand the need in the US, but not in the UK. All that will do is legitimise the carrying by the idiot criminals even more. I'm pretty sure the parents of the murdered child in Liverpool recently are wishing the gun toting idiots had had more control over them preceding their little sons murder!
Handguns are illegal here and have been for ages...
...yet Rhys Jones was STILL shot in the neck and killed.
Why?
Because the ONLY thing prohibition does is disarm those who have no criminal intent for their guns.
If there's one thing we've learned in the UK, it is that banning handguns has been ineffective at disarming criminals (read again - criminals - that's an important word - since when did criminals obey the law?)
If there's another thing that we've learned - it is that the rates of murder with handguns has INCREASED since the ban. A dramatic increase at that.
A friend of my family was attacked in his bed a few nights ago.
He didn't know his attacker - burglars broke into his house and one of them hit him in the face with an axe while he slept. Not used like a hammer - used like an axe. He lived and is currently in ICU awaiting massive surgery to put his face back together.
He would have been far less likely for that to happen in most of the USA, or here if firearms were legal to own for self defence - why?
Because in the USA people have GUNS. Because people have guns home invasions at night are almost unheard of. Burglars wait to make sure the house is empty before breaking in.
Having a handgun wouldn't have helped him directly as he was asleep when the attack took place - but if anyone who met the criteria could own a handgun for self defence - the burglars probably wouldn't have been there in the first place meaning he wouldn't be in a critical state right now.
The simple fact of the matter is that in the UK violent crime is a reality. Women are raped, people are attacked - the thing they all have in common? They are weaker than their attacker.
A firearm is a great equaliser - one which allows a lone, petite woman to fight off a gang intent on raping her in a way no other tool or law is capable of doing.
Read up on Orlando, Florida to see the effect that concealed carry firearms have on rape statistics and then ask yourself if the same could apply in the UK.