The number of legally held guns in Essex has increased by 20 per cent over the last decade.
Latest figures from the Home Office show there were 20,201 licensed firearms in the county, up from 15,780 in 2009.
It means there are 1,121 firearms for every 100,000 people in Essex, the highest rate for the last decade.
There were also a further 50,182 licensed shotguns in Essex, which are licensed separately.
This is also a slight increase on a decade ago.
What could be driving it?
Gill Marshall-Andrews, chairman of the Gun Control Network, claimed society should be working towards fewer guns, and that the rise in legal firearms was difficult to explain.
Look in a mirror, then. The more people like you whinge and whine that people shouldn't have them, the more people want them.
She said: “It is becoming more difficult to get a gun licence, so I have no idea why it has gone up.
“Unless we are going to say that nobody should have a gun –and we have never said that – you should have a good reason to own a gun, and you should be a proper person.
“The guidance is stricter and the licensing regulations, if properly applied, should mean that fewer people have a gun.”
And yet, the opposite is true. It's a puzzle, eh, love?
Forget legal firearms if only because the holders (in Essex) have been approved by (Essex) POLICE! It's the illegal firearms that the lady should be concerned about (and whilst I think of it knives as well).
ReplyDeleteIt seems they've done an FOI to local authorities and a version of that story has hit a few local newspapers, ours included, with the same quotes. Maybe the gun control nutwork are preparing a big push to get more taxpayer funding
ReplyDelete"It's the illegal firearms that the lady should be concerned about.."
ReplyDeleteAh, but the wrong sort of people tend to have those...
"Maybe the gun control nutwork are preparing a big push to get more taxpayer funding"
Ooooh, I don't think there's any 'maybe' about it!