Stop and search

[Womble]

Part of the BBC reporting of the story:

"So we're proposing that anyone convicted of knife crime should expect to go to jail. I don't believe the government's presumption to prosecute is enough. It doesn't send a strong enough signal. We need a presumption to prison."

He urged police to exercise "common sense" by not prosecuting people carrying penknives for angling, or for bringing home kitchen or garden equipment from the shops.

"This is about kitchen knives stuffed down the front of tracksuits," he told The Sun.

 

[phaserrifle]

http://www.sportingguns.com.au/Pistols/Steyr/2.html this pistol isn't designed for use against people. In fact it has several features that makes it very unsuitable for use against people. Guns are often used for target shooting, and many such guns are like the one above. I'm not trying to get you into a semantics battle here, but am pointing out that you made a very sweeping statement which is not true. Besides, there are situations where it may be neccesary to harm people, regrettably. Why do you think the police and army like them so much.

true, some pistols are designed for other purposes (note the use of the term MOST in my origional post) however I was mainly refering to full bore firearms, as opposed to air wepons. sorry if I failed to make this clear.
It is also true that there are some situations where it is neccecary to hurt people. however restricting access to wepons helps to reduce the chances of this happening, theoreticaly. the police and army are different cases, as they have far higher chances of finding themselves in such a situation, as they are actively looking for potentialy dangerous persons, and in the case of the army it is thier job to kill them. police guns are a whole different debate, and I have no problem with them.