In Britain–a nation of 66 million people–there were 64 total gun deaths for all of 2017 for the entire country . . . while we here in the States lost almost as many people in just one mass shooting (Las Vegas, with 59 dead).
This seems like a great social accomplishment (and it is), but it didn’t change anything with regards to violent crime.
Criminals have started car jacking and mugging people by running up to them and throwing acid (or concentrated lye) into the victim’s face.
If anything, murder and violent crime have gone up in Britain, although I do not imply or suggest that this has to do with them making guns illegal.
When all is said and done, people–especially criminals–are resourceful, and the possibilities for making improvised weapons from innocuous materials are limited only by one’s creativity and imagination.
When I was a troubled teenager, I made a gun that could shoot steel ball bearings through 2 inches of plywood. All I used was a threaded steel pipe, hose clamps, a metal end cap with a hole drilled in it, match heads for propellant, and a few other things.
It was like a half-assed matchlock pistol. I could reload and fire up to three rounds a minute, and I could hit a man-sized plywood target from about 40 feet away.
Looking back, I’m lucky that I didn’t blow my hands (or my penis) off.