Apparently it’s pretty easy to get a gun in the UK – I suggest the police spend their time getting to the bottom of this trade rather than prosecuting free party goers. But I suppose it’s easier to round up a load of spannered ravers than infiltrate the underbelly of London gangland.

although knives are still the main weapon used these days (along with bottles and normal tools) there is now more of a culture of gun use amongst city youths in council estates. Even so most guns used on the street are BB replicas or “rebores” – a metal BB firer alteted to chamber a .22 LR round (still readily available for pest control, and still lethal at close range – a popular “assasins weapon” during WW II and the Cold War)

However real guns chambered for 9mm para or even 7.62mm Soviet rounds (based on AK47 rifle ammunition) are in use on the streets of London.

A few years ago at an NYE illegal UK Garage party a DJ was shot dead for ending his set too early as this was “disrespect”.

The weapon used was 7.62 calibre and the round had enough power left after killing the DJ to penetrate a wall and kill another person in an adjoining room! The shooter got 20 years, 10 for each person dead.

it is fairly easy to get a firearm in the UK if you wish to associate with violent gangster types; and since the breakup of the USSR and the expansion of Europe and the reduction of border controls many pistols were brought or even posted from Europe.

The Czech republic is well known for producing high-quality but cheap self-loading pistols, a hangover from their Soviet days.

It is often permitted to carry a pistol in many European countries; and young men in particular often routinely do this.

It was perhaps this culture which led to the death of this London couple.

I was advised that at the European teknivals that guns were often produced and used to settle disputes – but more by waving them at people instead of actually discharging them.

Even many yanks who do have guns aren’t cowboy types but people like us trying to protect their lifestyles (many US progressive political activist types are armed for their own safety and I don’t blame them.)

however its (thankfully) often difficult to get live ammunition in Britain as sale of anything over .22 LR calibre is heavily restricted.

Cops do know about the gun problems and do arrest people ; the stark reality is there is more of it than the cops can cope with. An armed society wouldn’t help though – its already happened in London in the victorian days and there were regular gun battles in city areas.

the situation is in America (and even some of the newer European countries) is there is such mistrust of fellow citizens and even those in authority (perhaps understandably due to the divisions between races and cultures there) that a firearm is actually needed to keep an “uneasy peace by the threat of mutually assured destruction”

shooting people isn’t like in the movies unless (like in this case) its a clear head or body shot and only one person is armed.

people do not drop dead the moment they are hit – that means in your average gunfight where both people are armed and which takes place between a 15-25 metre range, even if one person is fatallly wounded they can still kill the other. this is the philosophy that people use to justify carrying guns.

As for the underbelly of London gangland thats already infiltrating the free party scene as we are all aware; and the old London gangland taboo of avoiding firearms if possible and using your physical strength and/or your brains (or improvised weapons) is slipping away – I fear it won’t be long before real guns (not replicas which are already common place) do appear at free parties – they are already commonplace on the commercial club scene in London and provincial areas.

I think the only reason it hasn’t happened yet as there is not enough bling yet on the squat party scene for even criminals to spend all that time money and effort using a real gun (still a few hundred quid involved) to jack someone for a mobile phone worth mere tens of pounds on the black market.

However, you do just get complete psycopaths about in London these days – there’s already a culture of firing guns in the air for some urban music scenes which has already totally accidentally killed someone.

And if people are prepared to shoot up a department store… I fear it will only be a matter of time before someone does let off shots in a crowded London free party just to “prove themselves”….