Crime plan suggestions

A few suggestions to reduce crime dramatically in this country.

Mandatory national military service for those over 18. Maybe 12-18 months. If at university, or in sixth form, then it’s deferred until graduation, but before age 26.
Mandatory ‘boys club’ training from form one. This will include marching, gun training (air guns will be both cheaper and safer), hiking, camping, patrolling and all the other skills that go with these activities.
Forming a committed, carefully selected team of police officers, special prosecutors, military intelligence officers (and other capable ‘snoops’) into a unit that will gather intel, analyze, investigate (and use ‘sting’ ops) and aggressively prosecute corrupt police officers. This unit should only be seen as temporary, with some sort of sunset clause in their mandate. Once the police service is clean again, they should either cease to operate or be directed to clean up other services.
Allow all Assistant Police Commissioners to issue firearms licenses.
Issue firearms to any citizen who applies, with the following provisos:
Must own land (or live in parents self-owned home)
Must not have any convictions for violent crime (someone who passed a bad cheque should still be allowed to defend themselves)
Must undergo a psychiatric evaluation
Must pass a gun competency training course
Spouse/adult SO must agree to allow ownership
Must shoot at an approved range at least once per quarter (every three months)
FULs renewed once every five years.
FUL holders should be allowed to keep up to 1,000 rounds of ammo, per gun.
More training and licensing of gunsmiths, with at least 12 per county.
More licensing of gun dealers.
The drafting and speedy passing of ‘Castle Doctrine’ laws. These laws will allow homeowners/landowners to use deadly force, if necessary to protect themselves, their loved ones and visitors and also their property. Police officers will no longer automatically be able to treat legal gun owners like common criminals for doing the right thing (protecting loved ones from heartless criminal rapists, kidnappers and murderers).
Have the HDC build outdoor 25m and 50m ranges in all of their new developments. This can be as simple as having a tractor push dirt up to form the backstop, with a long shed, and a small locked unit for storage of targets, tables, benches, etc.

Villages, and counties can compete a la Best Village competitions. We’ll not only have skilled dancers, singers, dramatists, comedians and playwrights. But also skilled, disciplined shooters, coaches and trainers that the country can call on should Venezuela, Colombia or Barbados ever decide to invade us.

These same citizens can be organized into volunteer, regional citizen corps to aid emergency workers before, during and after any disaster. This can done under the supervision of the ODPM or a new purpose built entity. They can also be networked into neighbourhood watch groups with teeth.

Since the majority of younger citizens will be properly trained and supervised in the correct use and safe handling of guns, the curiousity factor will have been appeased. Our youth will therefore have no excuse for handling illegal guns.

Because so many citizens will be properly trained and armed, the playing field will be level, with citizens finally having a fighting chance against the violent predatory criminals. Bandits, unsure about who is armed and who isn’t will be much less bold in their ‘trade of choice’, with many opting to seek other trades with longer term prospects (the wages of sin is death).

Of course, I don’t have all the answers. But please don’t be in denial about our present violent crime situation. Don’t give the same pat excuses that it’s a world problem; more guns means more crime; the government through the Ministry of National Security is spending many millions more, and have plans to eradicate crime, etc.

If we keep doing what we’ve always done (restricting legal gun ownership, while allowing-through omission or commission-illegal guns to enter and be used to kill citizens then we’ll always get what we always got–more crime, more citizen insecurity, bolder criminals, younger criminals, richer lawyers, poorer law-abiding citizens, longer periods for trials to begin, shorter lifespans and eventually chaos and anarchy.

Professor John Lott, in his book “More Guns Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws” has shown that violent crime is significantly lower in counties (he analyzed data from all 50 US states) that has less restrictive gun ownership laws and higher in counties with more restrictive laws.

Mahatma Gandhi, that Indian icon of peace has this to say about owning guns:
"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."

-- Mohandas Gandhi, An Autobiography, pg 446

Who am I to argue with Gandhi?

Even Jesus teaches that it is wise to be armed, in Luke 22:35-36:

"Then Jesus asked them, 'When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?' 'Nothing,' they answered. He said to them, 'But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

Sell your cloak and buy a sword. Advice from gentle Jesus, meek and mild.

Who am I to argue with Jesus?

James Wesley, Rawles, blogger extraordinaire of www.survivalblog.com while listing the precepts of his survivalist philosophy reminds us that in the absence of law and order, men become barbarians almost overnight, and we should always have lethal means at our disposal to repel attacks on our loved ones:

“Civilization is Just a Thin Veneer.
In the absence of law and order, men quickly revert to savagery. As was illustrated by the rioting and looting that accompanied disasters in the past three decades, the transition from tranquility to absolute barbarism can occur overnight. People expect tomorrow to be just like today, and they act accordingly. But then comes a unpredictable disaster that catches the vast majority unprepared. The average American family has four days worth of food on hand. When that food is gone, we'll soon see the thin veneer stripped away.

Show Restraint, But Always Have Recourse to Lethal Force.
My father often told me, "It is better to have a gun and not need it, than need a gun, and not have it." I urge readers to use less than lethal means when safe and practicable, but at times there is not a satisfactory substitute for well-aimed lead going down range at high velocity.”

Who am I to argue with the venerable J W Rawles?



Further reading:

More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws by John R. Lott Jr.


The Seven Myths of Gun Control: Reclaiming the Truth About Guns, Crime, and the Second Amendment by Richard Poe


The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong by John R. Lott Jr.


Thank God I Had a Gun: True Accounts of Self-Defense
by Chris Bird


Outgunned: True Stories of Citizens Who Stood Up to Outlaws--and Won by Robert A. Waters


America Fights Back: Armed Self-defense in a Violent Age
by Alan Gottlieb & Dave Workman


The Holy Bible by God
- Trini Funshooter