As reported, 75 year old Reginald Baker was a retired British man, whose physical strength was limited. His small home was filled with family photos, and collectible models of military vehicles. His home had been broken into once, and a burglar stole over £2,300 of his retirement savings. Fearing a repeated break-in, Reginald decided to store his money securely at the local post office, and had police install a security camera at his home. A few weeks after that first burglary, 4 young men broke into Reginald’s home and demanded his money. He told them that the money was at the post office, but they didn’t believe him. The criminals proceeded to torture the elderly man, breaking every single one of his ribs, stabbing him in the face, slicing his finger nearly completely off, beating him, and breaking his back. Reginald begged the criminals to stop, but they continued to torture him until he died, at which point they spent the night partying and drinking. The gruesome security camera footage led to the men’s conviction, for which two of them will serve 28 and 30 years in prison, while others will receive lesser sentences.

This and the many other cases, where British citizens are left defenseless against violent criminals, show the folly of the British ban on gun ownership. Such gun bans don’t prevent violence, since violence is caused by the intentional actions of a criminal, not the presence of an inanimate object. Instead, those bans only ensure that the law abiding members of society will be unarmed when those violent criminals attack, and that those who rightfully defend themselves will be sent to jail. This is especially true for the elderly, as few unarmed senior citizens can fight off a younger, stronger, and faster attacker. Armed senior citizens, on the other hand, have the best possible chance of defending themselves against attack by criminals. This armed 85 year old woman held a home invader at gunpoint, and made him call the police on himself. This armed 93 year old man shot a home invader in self defense after the home invader began to attack him. This armed 70 year old woman held an intruder at gunpoint until the police arrived to arrest him. This armed 91 year old man used his handgun to fend off two home invader who had broken in and threatened his wheelchair-bound wife with their guns. This armed 84 year old man used his handgun to stop a criminal who repeatedly tried to enter his home through the front door, back door, and a window. I could go on with more examples, but the point should be clear: gun ownership saves lives every day and allows even physically frail elderly people to stop the strongest criminals.

The most common rebuttal that I hear to my above statements is the assertion that gun bans keep guns out of the hands of those violent criminals. This is simply not the case. Whether we’re talking about Britain, or US cities like Chicago, guns bans fail to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. That is because criminals who want guns will get them, just as they are able to get illegal drugs and other contraband on the black market. For such criminals, gun control laws are just another law for them to break, and a person willing to commit robbery or murder won’t think twice about breaking such a gun control law. That is why gun related crime will often rise after guns are banned, as criminals become emboldened by their monopoly on guns, and go about using those guns to deadly effect against their now-disarmed victims. Interestingly enough, knife related crime also tends to rise after guns are banned, possibly because the emboldened knife-wielding criminals are less afraid that their victim may have a self defense gun. Moreover, as this case shows, criminals without guns are more than capable of killing their victims.

I would also like to note that security cameras do not prevent violent crime, as this man and many others have sadly learned. Instead, such cameras only gather evidence, so that the criminals can sometimes be identified and prosecuted at a later time. While (possibly) eventually bringing criminals to justice is a good thing, it does not un-rape a woman, or un-torture a home invasion victim.

We Americans need to learn from the terrible mistake that the British people made when they banned guns, lest the same thing happen in our country. The British should also learn from their mistake, and take steps to restore their gun rights.