Tell that to all the people who get killed unnecessarily in places with lax gun control. UK and Australia have very low comparative murder rates to the USA. Gun control works, suckers.
Sure, maybe a few extra people will stab you because they can't shoot you, but the number of people willing to pick up a knife and attack you is only a fraction of the number who would do it with a gun. Knife attacks are much more risky and easier to fight back against. They're also much easier to out-run.
I'd be cautious working with UK statistics on violent crime, given the Home Office's past habits of covering up crimes or fiddling with statistic definitions in order to downplay the consequences of Police budget cuts. With the exception of drive-by shootings, most gun crime in London is done at the same range as knife attacks, which is to say they put the gun to your head before they pull the trigger. The number of people willing to pick up a knife and attack you is pretty ordinary in rough boroughs of London, especially if you look weak, old or small. I also don't think murder rate is a useful number here, since a victim who survived a mugging or a gang rape done at knife point will not appear at all under homicide statistics if they survived. And I must stress - the numbers are not accurate, because a lot of knife crime goes unreported.
-68,968 robbery offences, up 29%
-138,045 sex offences, up 23%
-37,443 knife crime offences, up 21%
-1,291,405 violent crime offences, up 20%
There were 37,443 knife crimes and 6,694 gun crime offences recorded in the year to September.
Although there's likely to be a dispute about the accuracy of the police crime figures because they hinge, to some extent, on the way forces log offences, how pro-active they are and the willingness of victims to come forward, they clearly demonstrate a rapidly rising caseload.
However the ONS says higher-harm violent offences, such as knife crime occur in relatively low volumes, and also tend to be concentrated in cities and are therefore not "well-measured" by the Crime Survey.
Regarding gun controlled London versus freedom land New York and violent crime, they're not a fair comparison to make, the NYPD is exceedingly well-funded whilst the Metropolitan Police is being strangled to death. There's fuck all point to gun control laws if they can't be enforced, much the same with knife bans. The only difference it makes is that the population is disarmed, and subsequently is entirely reliant upon themselves or the government for their physical security. Thus it doesn't make for much convincing results regarding studies of policy. The argument that disarmed civilians are safer against armed criminals doesn't make much sense to me, since an unarmed 4ft 10 lady is screwed facing one 6ft man with or without weapons, and is unlikely to be able to outrun them, and their chances decrease if there's a gang of them and their chances evaporate if they've got bikes or scooters. If you're the type of person who can outrun or fight a man with a knife, you're usually the type of person gangs don't bother to target. And if they do target you, it's usually because they've mistaken you for a gang member they hate, which is the usual cause for innocent people getting murdered by gangs - and you're going to die unless they realize their mistake. Lots of really petty shit where people are getting stabbed or attacked with hammers just to steal their phone, while we've had more serious shit with thousands of acid attacks, stabbings, gun killings, scooter attacks e.t.c. annually.
The only conclusion you can make is that disarming your police and your civilians whilst cutting your police force is a dumb idea. Which should already be a no-brainer. But I don't think London can be used to justify or discredit the policy, you cannot ignore the demography, the urban geography, the policing situation, the political situation and so on. The only thing I can think you can confirm is that it kills vigilantism, with some heartbreaking results when police cannot or will not police - worst ones being wherein fathers were arrested by police for trying to rescue their daughters from sexual slavery by grooming gangs. But it wasn't always like that, there was a time when public confidence in our police was high, and it was justified. A lot has changed over the last 30 years though
Knives are also cheaper, meaning that without guns there's less firepower differential between rich and poor. :3
Firepower differential is at its widest between rich and poor, rich have better access to police units (and better funded ones, including private ones), bodyguards, private security, and if they really want to they can have their own legal firearms. They just do that silly thing where they add ugly extensions all over their handguns until they're legally rifles lol, but it's all a moot point since there are plenty of economic barriers and physical barriers which ensure they don't even have to interact with poor people unless they want to
Also yeah, if you want to have a better look at crime in London, don't just look at the statistics reported by Police or the Home Office, there's plenty you can do to muddle that up. For example reporting on prosecutions, reported cases, successful murders instead of attempted ones e.t.c, plenty of ways you can cut down the numbers. Right now "
police are failing to solve 63 per cent of knife crimes committed against under-25s."
Other outcomes included youth cautions and community resolutions. Collated from responses by 21 out of 43 police forces, the data paints a stark picture of the knife crime epidemic gripping the nation. All the forces were approached but many refused to hand over their figures.
No one likes talking about it. Meanwhile
our hospitals are running out of blood because it's all being used trying to save the lives of stabbing victims, so in the likely event that our NHS can't cope due to their own budget cuts, that successful homicide rate is going to go up, for knives, guns and other weapons (amazingly, just recently the NHS saved a man who took a point-blank shotgun blast to the head).
*EDIT
I've forgotten one merit of gun control which is regarding political extremism and terrorism. Since the general populace is disarmed, someone procuring weapons is considerably more noticeable. This can greatly aid security services in spotting potential terrorist plots before they happen
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