Thursday 4 August 2016

Russell Square stabbings - Proving the case for gun control

We awake to the news of a mass stabbing in Russell Square last night. As I write this, the details are stil unknown with terrorism and mental health being mentioned. One thing which the terrible incident does demonstrate is the benefit of the UK's strong system of gun controls. Whilst it is tragic that one person has died and six were injured, think how much worse the carnage would have been had the perpetrator been armed with semi automatic guns. Whilst we are at present not clear exactly what triggered the shootings, if you go out with a knife and then stab a number of people, it has to be surmised that you had put  a degree of preparation into your actions. As such the lack of readily available guns is clearly a major reason for us not waking up to a far worse tragedy. Whatever lessons we learn from such incidents, lets hope we see the value of our current regime of gun control.

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