Murder in the uk?

13 Comments

I was wondering how the British react to homicides depending on the weapon.

In the US, if a gun is used, it's treated like business as usual. The news reports and true crime stories don't use too many descriptive terms about gun homicides. They usually don't even mention anything about the gun itself or how many times someone was shot unless it's something incredible. If they say anything beyond 'murder at the corner of x and y', it's usually only a bit of backstory, IF it's interesting enough.

Knives are more shocking. They always say a lot of words like 'brutal, personal, bloody, severe', always say the # of stab wounds, always say things like 'nearly decapitated, severed, dismembered' or whatever other proper description of the severity of the attack.

It shocks the police that anyone even uses anything other than a gun. They (and the public) sort of think why the heck stab someone? They always use that as a basis for a theory of a stabbing or any other weapon being a more 'personal' attack.

We don't hear about too many blunt instruments or strangulations, but when we do they're treated almost as a stabbing.

I was thinking about this because I was wondering how, if the US banned gun ownership, it would totally change how we investigated, thought about and talked about homicide. Stabbings would take over for shootings eventually, and there'd be more of any other method as well.

Can people from the UK describe how your news reports and true crime reports describe murders depending on the weapons used? Also, how your police react to different methods of homicide? And, are you afraid of getting stabbed all the time?

Voting isn't really important, but I had to put options!!

Thanks in advance!!

I'm from the UK, I'll comment. 8
I'm from the US, good question. 14
Who cares? 24
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Comments ( 13 )
  • dappled
    11 years ago

    I'm British. If a murder is committed near me with a gun, I usually think the perpetrator is a coward or lazy. Guns are easy. It's push-button murder, like changing the channel with a remote control because you do it at a distance. It's easier to do it and it's easier to dissociate yourself from it.

    Sliding a knife into someone's flesh and getting their blood all over you takes greater conviction. I think this is a good thing. I don't believe in making murder easier, less personal. I don't have a problem with guns themselves, or the people who own guns, just the idea that a certain subset of people commit a murder who otherwise wouldn't have done.

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    • DaemonWolf
      11 years ago

      "A gun is a coward's weapon. A liar's weapon. We kill too often because we've made it easy... too easy... sparing ourselves the mess and the work"

      Kudos on offer to anyone who knows where that quote's from.

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      • dappled
        11 years ago

        I don't think it's from anything I've read/watched, but it does seem peculiarly close to what I was saying. Maybe I have seen it and it lodged in my brain.

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        • DaemonWolf
          11 years ago

          I'll give you one more from the same book and the same character.

          "This is the weapon of the enemy. We do not need it. We will not use it." - While snapping a shotgun in half.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      11 years ago

      Is it true that knives are the #1 murder weapon there now?

      Did any strange methods increase after banning guns, like poisoning, drugging, maybe hitting someone with a car or tossing them off a bridge....stuff like that? Well, it must have increased somewhat but is it significant? What's the most common 'uncommon' method, and what's a newer method that you've seen happen a few times?

      Did fist fighting increase?

      Sorry for all the questions, but this information isn't easy to find. Up to date anyway, and much of it is so scattered and I'm not sure about all of the sources.

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      • dappled
        11 years ago

        The ban on guns isn't what you think. It's not that we all had them, they got banned, and then we all handed them in. They were always restricted so virtually nobody had them anyway. The ban on guns had little impact.

        Knives have always been a "popular" murder weapon here although a lot of the murder isn't intentional. The problem with a knife, like a gun, is that simply having it increases the pressure to use it (or you're branded a coward).

        Fist fighting is still as popular as ever (we're known for it). In fact, nothing really changed. Gun laws have become more restrictive at various stages over the past century. It's been a slow process since James II banned firearms and caused both England and the colonialists who populated America to seek "the right to bear arms".

        Of odd methods used to kill, there was the case of the parents who killed a child by oversalting his food. There was a man who was fed into industrial machinery and there are a couple of cases a year of "plastic bag" killings where the victim is bound and then a carrier back is secured over their head. That's not a nice one because the more you struggle, the quicker the oxygen runs out. I don't know how anyone stays calm as they are being murdered.

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  • KnightNigelWellingtonXXI
    11 years ago

    I don't care. Unless it's the Queen.

    Signed,
    Knight Nigel Wellington XXI

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  • sirjammy
    10 years ago

    Guns are way too easy to kill someone. I think a good way to kill someone is to use a knife and look the person in the eyes whilst slowly piercing their flesh as if to say I own you.

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  • snowtail802
    11 years ago

    ok so a gun is for hunting and stuff...not for killing people...

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  • theaverageatheist
    11 years ago

    usualy they don't specify how victim was killed, mabe if he\she was killed out in the open they will say, but they usualy don't like to give details.
    not so many people have guns and only in certan towns there is gang violence, there are a lot of muggings and lots of them end in murder usualy by knife. so knife murders are the most common of murders. I also see lots of domestic violence.
    but when you hear about a shooting it's considerd so unusual that the broad cast it alot. Raoul Moat and the norway shooting where on the news like 24\7.and you allways wonder how ther maneged to get hold of a gun.
    then you hear about a lot of people being beaten to deth, but that's usualy because the people get drunk and violent so they don't know what they are doing.

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  • Darkoil
    11 years ago

    A lot of murders are not reported on the national news, on the regional news it might say something like "A man from Leeds has been charged with the murder of a teenage boy who was found dead in a flat on thursday night" That is basically all it will say. Some murders however like Joanna Yeates become national news and every little detail of what occurred is broadcast on the news. Some will actually be breaking news stories and they will interupt whatever program is on to bring live updates, this happened for example a few years ago when a man called Raoul Moat went on a shooting spree and then had a standoff with the police.

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  • dirtybirdy
    11 years ago

    How about hammer blows to the back of the head like the yorkshire ripper.

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    • theaverageatheist
      11 years ago

      ther was some young kid a few years ago who killed on of his friends with a pipe

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