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UK To Mull High Video Game Taxes — To Fight Knife Crime
chareverie writes "The Prime Minister of the UK is being urged to impose high taxes on violent video games in an effort to reduce the number of knife-related crime. The request comes from Richard Taylor, who argues that young people 'feel that the law has no control over them. They just feel that they can go on the streets and do whatever they like.' He doesn't have a definitive number on how much to tax on the offensive video games, but says that they should be 'very high.' Rap music is also voiced to be a concern due to the alleged negativity and language. Taylor's son, Damilola Taylor, was killed in November 2000 at the age of 10 by knife stabbing."
The British gov't has systematically distorted statistics and selectively presented data in order to advance its own agenda.
This latest ploy probably has little to do with crime, and more to do with bringing in more cash to fund the gov't's pet projects. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7780057.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7781030.stm
K
Unfortunately, most idiots who spout drivel like this don't even have a strong correlation in the first place. Sales of violent video games may be up, and knife crimes might be up, but is it even the kids playing the games committing the crimes?
It's worse than that. Knife crime is down. The number of people injured by knives and other sharp instruments is down (although not by as much as was previously reported). Incidence of violent crime in general is down.
This hysteria and panic is caused by, well, nothing. Except the fact that for some unknown reason over the last 5 years the media has become much more likely to report each and every incident of violence with a knife that they get to hear about.
So, if there is any correlation, it's a negative one: more video games, less knife crime.
Didn't you get the memo?
Enforcing the law in the UK is just sooooo last century.
We don't do that any more, it's just not cool. No, what we do instead is bring in hundreds of new laws outlawing things that were already illegal (terrorist activity), remove a few liberties whilst we're at it, direct the police towards legitimate protest and speech (they're all terrorists now!), bring in nebulous measures like ASBOs which allow anyone to enjoy the feeling of the courts coming down on them and imposing restrictions on their lives over any trivial matter that doesn't even have to be illegal... all whilst shouting about drugs and morality.
this is just one more reason I'm getting the hell out.
While we're at it, why don't we ban penises? After all, it's the weapon of choice for rapists everywhere!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I thought all crime was supposed to cease in England when they banned firearms.
So, now it's knives?
Next, they will come for the pointy things.
Eventually, everyone in England will be required to be lobotomized in order to prevent anyone from taking any actions whatsoever that might be harmful to someone else.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
If you think punishment of any form is not a deterrent, then talk to the guy who wrote the proposed law since he's the one saying youths have no regard for the law and that is a problem (again, how it relates to his proposed solution is not clear but whatever).
Punishment is not a 100% deterrent, but that does not mean punishment is never a good answer to get some level of prevention.
In particular, note that negative consequences are even more powerful. Fear of capital punishment is remote in someone's mind, but fear a target may be armed is much closer to someone's mind as a criminal. That's why areas with fewer gun control laws have all sorts of better crime statistics in general, especially when you factor out criminal vs. criminal crime (like turf wars).
If you truly believe utter lack of punishment and personal responsibility makes for a great society, I encourage you to move to the UK in a small town with some of the "Youths" in question and see how you feel in two years.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Taylor's son, Damilola Taylor, was killed in November 2000 at the age of 10 by knife stabbing."
Actually, although it doesn't make it any less tragic, I'm pretty sure he was stabbed with a broken bottle...
Before you ask, in the UK bottles are only taxed heavily if they contain alcohol.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Oh, get lost. Most people in Britain don't want guns to be legal. There's not even any pro-gun lobby to speak of here. The government here does plenty of stupid things but in this case the government legislation is well-aligned with the will of the people.
I'm not saying that guns should be illegal in the US or anywhere else, it depends what the people of that country want. But here guns are illegal and almost everyone is happy with that.
I will often use the pointed tip of my knife to "stab" a food item if the food (like, say tomatoes) resists my initial slice attempts (e.g. looks like it's going to squish instead of slice cleanly).
Offtopic, but you either need to sharpen your knives or use the right knife. Probably both. :-)
A freshly sharpened chefs will cut tomatoes, but not for long. Using the steel hone will prolong this, but it's still not the right blade for that. I pull out a scalloped or serrated blade, and that works wonders. Even so, I need to get mine sharpend.
In 2005, there was a major layoff of teachers from the public school system of Minneapolis. That same year, there was a dramatic surge in the number of hurricanes to hit the Gulf Coast.
As such, either
1) Laying off teachers causes hurricanes
2) Hurricanes cause teachers to be laid off
3) Teacher get laid off in Minneapolis for the same reason hurricanes form, namely, warm water and air currents off the east coast of Africa moving toward the colder central Atlantic ocean
Correlation implies absolutely nothing without substantially stronger evidence to tie the threads together, and no, anecdotal evidence doesn't count.
"If you ask me, the UK government is in denial over the correlation between the rise in knife violence and its ban on firearms."
Good job nobody asked you then, because knife crime has been falling.
Oh, and nobody's carried a gun "for defence" over here in several decades. I know, I know, you want to say "they took your guns in 1998!!", but that's a bunch of crap.
Handguns were banned, this is true. However in a country of 60 million there were only around 125K individuals licensed to own (not carry, own) firearms. And there still are, it's just they have to have shotguns and rifles now.
So sorry, there's no turning point to find in the handgun ban and any knife crime rise. If both happened in 1998 (and I'm yet to be convinced there's been anything but more media attention to the crime rates) then they are unrelated because people in this country overwhelmingly did not own guns before that date.
When you hear about knife crime being down, bear in mind that the government have been caught fiddling the numbers to make themselves look better.
Yes. They claimed a 16% (IIRC) drop in hospital admissions with knife injuries, but actually the drop was only 8%. Point still stands, though: there has been a serious reduction lately.
Firearms have no particular cultural or constitutional significance in Great Britain. US law may be based on English common law, but the reverse isn't true. The right to bear arms in English Law has always been restricted to those weapons that were suitable for the purpose of self-defence. In a society where the probability of encountering a gun-wielding assailant is very small there are few individuals for whom a handgun is a suitable defensive weapon. Gun ownership has never been widespread in Britain and most people would prefer to keep it that way, regardless of constitutional controversies in foreign lands.