Well, here in the US there's not just one line of illegal vs legal, there's different restrictions on different classes of firearms, the whole 9 yards. For instance, technically fully-automatic weapons are legal- you do have to pay some extra fines and check your gun in every so often, but the average Joe who doesn't mind all the beurocratic red tape, full-auto is an option.
Oh, and I don't know what laws in Ireland specifically lowered the crime, but here in Arizona we've been made safer on the streets by a law, too- a concealed carry permit law, which gives the people more rights- now we can carry concealed firearms if we get a permit for it (before it was open carry only, so you'd probably get stopped by every cop you pass, etc, so alot of people that would have carried chose not to)... apparently criminals don't like getting shot at or something... whod'a thunk'it!
PS- In case you were wondering, only ONE crime has been committed by a LEGALLY obtained full-auto weapon in the US for the last 60 years, and it was committed by an off-duty police officer. Many many other crimes have been committed with full-auto's, but they were all illegally obtained. Apparently criminals do things that are illegal, too (like buy untracable, unrestricted guns for half the price of a legal, registered one)... another shocker!
_______________________
Shot four puppet governors in a line,
Shook all tha world bankers, who think they can rhyme,
Shot the landlords, who knew it was mine,
Yes, its a war from the depth of time!
[This message was edited by DeadeyeDan[ToA] on Aug 30, 2000 at 19:58.]
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