The London Metropolitan Police has a programme where they stop and search people for weapons.
These searches were even more successful "when people give us information into who we should be stopping", according to Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe. He added that when someone regularly carried a weapon, their "brothers will know, the girlfriends will know, the people they go out with every night will know...If they tell us, we'll make sure we stop those people, and therefore make our stop-and-search even more effective."
I bet that gives the US 2A crowd the willies.
Personally, I preferred the knife exchange programme.
In England the police can stop and search you for no reason at all? That is not a 2nd Amendment issue it is a 4th Amendment issue.
ReplyDelete"I bet that gives the US 2A crowd the willies."
ReplyDeleteThat sort of gestapo tactic should give anyone the willies.
Jim, the US constitution and its protections only apply in the US. Or as the English language magazine in Belgium, the Bulletin, pointed out on the cover when I lived there--
ReplyDeleteYou think you have rights?
The point was that Anglo-American rights were not part of Belgian culture.
FWM, so you support criminals right to carry guns?
I believe the US has similar provisions for people living in subsidised housing to turn in family members for illegal drugs and guns.
Laci - my point is why would this only bother people interested in the 2nd Amendment here in America? This is much more about the 4th Amendment rights than the 2nd Amendment rights.
ReplyDeleteMy question was does England not have a similar legal right against unwarranted searches?
Your post on the Belgian police is a great example on why people here feel the 2nd Amendment is indeed still relevant to prevent such a police state from forming here in America.
Actually, if someone gives a tip, there is reason for a search--so no Fourth Amendment issue.
ReplyDeleteSecond Amendment because of the fear of having family, friends, etc. turn them in for owning weapons.
But as Democommie points out--all the feds have to do is keep track of the people who post on RKBA internet fora to know who owns a gun.
Your post on the Belgian police is a great example on why people here feel the 2nd Amendment is indeed still relevant to prevent such a police state from forming here in America.
ReplyDeleteI missed that one.
Wow, that's a culturally chauvanistic statement and sort of ignorant to boot.
The Belgians have loads of guns and a mandatory military service--so not sure how possession of firearms would prevent "such a police state".
Switzerland is just as bad "a police state" if you're getting into it and the 2A crowd think of it as being paradise.
Secondly, they take it for granted.
My point of the post about Belgium is that people from English speaking countries are used to an amount of freedom and rights that most other countries do not have.
If you told a Swiss person that they lived in tyranny, they would laugh in your face.
There is nothing in the Second Amendment which is in conflict with the Fourth. The Constitution does not permit you to get into a gunfight with the authorities if you disagree over search and seizure. Soing so is stupid and will get you killed, put in jail, or on death row.
ReplyDeleteIn a lot of US jurisdictions it's capital murder if you kill a member of Law Enforcement--and it should be!
So, your position, Jim, is kind of dumb and a very wrong. You aren't supposed to be killing your fellow Americans just because you have your knickers in a twist. The courts exist to resolve those conflicts, not the Second Amendment.
Law abiding people don't get the willies.
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe if they're black they do.
You mean they really aren't scared that the government will grab their guns?
ReplyDelete