The Dunblane massacre was the spark that ignited the inferno that resulted in the banning of all handguns in the U.K. Thousands of people told them it wouldn’t do any good. Now some of the most vigorous proponents of the ban are saying, “You were right.” From the Sunday Herald in Scotland:

I allowed myself two simple, possibly simplistic, strategies. First, I was not ever going to attempt to “explain” Hamilton: the bereaved deserved better. Secondly, in my small way, I was going to take on anyone who failed to support the banning of handguns.

There was a lot of American comment, predictably, and much of it abusive. The clichés appeared as if by return of post. “Guns don’t kill people,” they wrote. “People kill people.” So why – this struck me almost as the definition of self-evident – did Thomas Hamilton feel a need for four of the damnable things?

Then the Duke of Edinburgh, and the field sports people, and the target shooters entered the fray. The royal consort, with his usual sensitivity, expressed the view that things were getting out of hand, and that a more considered response was required. I can clobber royals in my sleep.

The most troubling questions came, instead, from those who answered my simplicities with one of their own. They didn’t oppose a ban, as such. They merely wanted to know why I was so sure that legislation would work.

That seemed obvious. It even seemed faintly stupid to think otherwise. No guns, no gun-killings. Remove the threat: wasn’t that one of the jobs of government?

Sceptics were more subtle than I allowed. What they meant was that it is easy to impose laws on the law-abiding. Criminals, by definition, don’t take much interest in well-meaning legislation. If they chose to arm themselves while the rest of society was, in effect, disarming, outraged newspaper commentators and their quick fixes might merely make matters worse.

…

Let’s concede that all the bans have failed. That doesn’t mean we should also fail to ask a practical question. Britain has become a security state in recent years. Nobody strolls unmolested through customs these days. There are terrorist suspects, so they say, at every turn. So why, precisely, are handguns still getting into this country?

The answer to the practical question is that, in the technical terms of security experts, the attack surface is too large. There are just too many different ways to get past the barriers. It only takes one hole in “the wall”. And if there is sufficient demand for a product the market will find a way to meet that demand.

It’s just putting more nails in a coffin that was glued, screwed shut, and then had rocks piled on it years ago but here is more evidence gun control has failed in the U.K.:

Although the Metropolitan Police seized 909 firearms and more than 16,000 rounds of ammunition last year, no one knows with certainty how many guns are on Britain’s streets. Only last Friday a wealthy businessman who controlled an international gun-smuggling operation from eastern Europe to London was jailed for 10 and a half years. Officers caught Gerald Smith, 47, handing over 18 converted Baikal pistols, 18 silencers and 748 rounds in north London last May. But such successes are relatively few.

Cressida Dick, the commander of Scotland Yard’s specialist crime directorate, pointed to the ease with which guns can be rented overnight as an issue. She warned that guns are being moved routinely around Britain: ‘We are seeing firearms being used in several different crimes and there are examples of different offenders using the same firearm across the UK.’

Yet they still think there is some debate to be made:

The spate of killings that began in broad daylight when 21-year-old Javorie Chrighton was stabbed to death at a bus stop a few minutes walk from where the meeting was held would, within days, lead to the current debate over whether Britain has lost its fight against gun control.

Inside the meeting hall at Peckham’s Learning and Business Centre last week, speaker after speaker painted a picture of a community’s misery since the murder of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor six years ago. There are new buildings, but little else seems to have changed.

Give it up guys. You lost. I know it’s tough to admit you were wrong, especially when we have been saying since day one that it wouldn’t work. But dealing with the embarrassment is not nearly as bad as dealing with all the innocent victims.