Introduction
On the 16th of June 2016 British MP Jo Cox was murdered by a lone attacker armed with a knife and gun just as she was about to attend a community surgery.
Image Source: The Guardian
From Wikipedia:
According to eyewitnesses, she was shot three times — once near the head — and stabbed multiple times. A 77-year-old local man, Bernard Kenny, was stabbed in the stomach while trying to fend off her attacker. Initial reports indicated that the gunman shouted "Britain first" as he carried out the attack.[14] The far-right Britain First party issued a statement denying any involvement or encouragement in the attack and suggested that the phrase "could have been a slogan rather than a reference to our party".[43][44] Later at Mair's trial a witness stated that he shouted, "This is for Britain. Britain will always come first".
This attack was shocking for the entire country. Jo was a young MP with a young family. Despite bystanders attempts to protect and save Cox they were basically left defenceless against an attacker who was armed.
What if Cox or one of those who tried to protect her had a handgun?
Handguns were banned in the UK following the Dunblane massacre in 1996 but what if they hadn't been? Indeed, what if we had less restrictive laws on gun licensing and ownership?
This is a purely hypothetical thought experiment it will never happen here but I think it is an interesting subject to discuss. I think Dunblane and the response to it showed the difference in attitudes to firearms between the US and UK.
Yesterday I made a post sharing a Youtube video by Gray Winsler about US gun control issues.
The video was very well made and I was really impressed by the fantastic debate we were able to have on this issue.
Despite people being on different sides of the debate it all remained very civilised and genial - a testement to the community we have here - we may strongly disagree but we can get on and have fun with the discussion.
My thoughts
I think if Jo Cox or one of the people around her had been in possession of a handgun she may well still be alive.
I realise this will be a very controversial view amongst my compatriots but what made me think of this?
Testimony of Dr Gratia Hupp
What particularly inspired me in this line of thought was a video clip that 
It is very powerful and I think it makes this case very well please watch it:
It is hard to argue with the fact that this lady's parents might have been saved if she had her gun on her person.
I find it interesting that we often hear the debate framed in relation to what criminals may do with legally owned guns rather than how regluar people might be saved by their use.
Criminals and mentally deranged people don't necessarily care about or go out of their way to follow the law.
They will get guns if they want them and if guns are strictly controlled the only people who aren't going to have guns are their potential victims.
Open Carry Statistics in the US
Further a number of other users mentioned that there are lower rates of violent crimes in US states with open carry laws.
Whilst some people argue about the significance of the statistics I did find that there is a basis in fact for it according to research conducted by Matt Gaetz (source Politifact).
Here is an excerpt from the Politifact article which summarises his findings:
Gaetz used Uniform Crime Reporting figures compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice to create his statistics. The data come 2012.
He divided the states into two groups — the eight states that did not allow open carry at the time, which included Florida, Texas, California, South Carolina, Illinois, New York, Oklahoma, Arkansas — and the 42 states that did allow open carry.
Gaetz then compared the total number of violent crimes (defined by federal officials as murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault) with the total population in the eight states without open carry in 2012.
We checked his math and found the same result: Those states had a combined violent crime rate of about 434 per 100,000 people. The remaining 42 states had a violent crime rate of about 352 per 100,000. That means states with open carry laws did have a 23 percent lower violent crime rate that year.
So this is not something that is an urban legend or just made up by people on the pro-gun side of the debate.
There is a statistical basis there.
The Politifact article that I sourced this from seems to be questioning the relevance of the data but it seems to make a very poor argument for disregarding it.
If open carry of firearms reduces violent crime in the US why not the UK?
Guns Don't Kill People
One of the common arguments is that people are the instigators of gun violence and violence in general. Someone intent on doing harm could do it in many different ways.
Guns are only one possiblity and further making them illegal (or as close to that as you can get) is not going to deter a criminal or deranged person from their use.
It just deprives the law abiding citizen an option for self defence.
I don't care how tough you are - you may be Bruce Lee himself, but you are not going to stand a chance against an assailant who has a gun if you don't have one yourelf.
The Freedom Angle
Banning guns gives an advantage to those who break laws rather than those who follow them.
Some people would say that increasing the number of guns in a country might result in more violence and death - BUT the previous statistic on open-carry in the US seems to counter that.
The Deadly Weapon We Never Even Think About
We all have access to a far more deadly and efficient weapon that could be used for killing people en masse yet it rarely happens.
Cars are all around us and we are not suffering under an onslaught of deliberate car violence.
Why would guns be any different?
Conclusions
Don't get me wrong. I know that there is zero chance of gun laws being relaxed in the UK or of handguns being legal again.
Nevertheless I think it is interesting to consider the possibities as a kind of thought experiment and a basis for discussion.
What do you think? Please have your say.
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