Britain’s New Anti-Crime Strategy: Guilt Them Straight

Great Britain is facing a serious situation. The number of stabbings is out of control. Just Google “Great Britain+stabbing” and you get headlines like this:

• Six Stabbed in England in Last 24 Hours
• Weekend of knife violence sees two more men stabbed to death and third left fighting for life
• Five Arrested Over Teen Stabbing
• Stabbed Teen: 19th London Victim
• Latest London stabbing claims life of teen

But how bad is it really? The Brussels Journal writes:

Violent crime has doubled since Labour came to power a decade ago. Stabbings and assault in Britain are now common, if not daily occurrences; at night city centers are generally regarded as no-go areas; “feral” youths and gangs loitering the streets – often drunk on cheap alcohol – make many people too afraid to go for a walk on a summer evening.

Every week yields up plenty of reasons why people have good reason to be scared in modern Britain. On Saturday evening 60-year old Stan Dixon, a former soldier, was attacked by youths, for asking them not to swear in front of a woman. He died yesterday in hospital. 17 teenagers have been murdered in London alone this year. The latest victim, 16 year-old Ben Kinsella, was killed on Sunday night. On Tuesday Dee Willis, a 28 year-old woman, was stabbed to death by a female attacker in south-east London. Today, the country woke up to reports of the extremely brutal and apparently motiveless murder of two French exchange students, Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez (both 23). The two men had been playing computer games at Mr. Bonomo’s apartment in New Cross, south-east London, on Sunday night, when they were attacked, gagged, tortured (suffering nearly 250 stab wounds between them), and their bodies set on fire.

It’s that bad. So the Brits have come up with a dandy new program to put a halt to this wave of bladed violence. Let the citizens defend themselves with weapons? HA! No, be serious.

They are going to make the criminals feel so guilty, they won’t stab anyone again. How will they do this? Make them face their victim in the hospital:

Young people who carry knives will be made to visit hospitals where stabbing victims are treated, in a bid to shock them into changing their behaviour.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said seeing “gruesome” injuries would be a tougher deterrent than sending all knife carriers in England and Wales to jail.

Did this mental patient acting as a government official stop and think that maybe, just maybe, the person recovering from a vicious stabbing might not want to see the person who shanked them? Did she stop to think that maybe the victim would react violently towards the person who attempted to filet them? Did this nit-wit stop and think that maybe the victim would not want to participate in a program that helps their attacker avoid a prison sentence?

Not likely.

Isn’t it time to give the people back the right to defend themselves?

See, in Great Britain, old ladies get locked up for using a cap gun to scare off some thugs (scroll down, it’s in there). In Great Britain, old men face six months in prison for waving a stick at rock throwing youths. In Great Britain, the daughters of World War II vets go to jail for defending a World War II memorial.

Are you noticing a commonality?

The people are not only powerless to defend themselves, but are often punished for it if they try. And they think this guilt treatment is going to curb violence. Let them defend themselves, for God’s Sake!

Thank the Founding Fathers for the Second Amendment. It is just as important today as it was the day it was penned.