The Defence Brief

Semi automatic rifles for sale at a gun show in Texas So, the USA has a problem with guns. Or, to be more accurate, America loves guns but has a problem with them being used to kill innocent people, often en masse. There are literally millions of guns in the USA and while people, including me, regularly suggest an Australian-style buy-back of weapons and an outright ban the reality is that is unlikely to happen, if for no other reason than it will cost the government an absolute fortune – the Australian buy-back took around 650,000 weapons off the streets but an equivalent in the US would require something like 60,000,000 guns to be bought and if they cost an average of $500, which seems reasonable having checked out the Texas Gun Trader website for the prices of second-hand weapons, that would cost $30,000,000,000… which is a lot. What then can be done about the problems of mass shootings in the short term? I think the answer is, probably, not very much. But, I do wonder ...

On my ride to work I often pass Dallas Clothing, a slightly odd clothing store in Whitechapel.  I say it's odd because the entrance is a small doorway that leads to what I assume to be a shop in a windowless area above a beauty saloon called Afreen. This morning, I noticed a sign on the door advertising bullet proof vests and gloves.  Call me an old cynic, but I can only think of one reason that you'd want to be buying bullet proof vests and that is because you are somebody closely associated with gun crime... in which case, I wonder whether simply leaving a store that sells such equipment would provide reasonable grounds for a stop and search under s. 1 PACE?