Brittish police cry for judges to enforce the law.

In the UK, they've got issues.

• "... our porous borders allow weapons to simply flow into the country while the Government's failure to combat the scourge of drugs also fuels so much violent crime."

Gangs, of course, gangs and other criminals are thriving in an atmosphere of prohibition. A large market for illicit drugs has spawned forth a large amount of people willing to break the law in order to meet the demand. But the gangs of today, aren't those of years past:

• There will always be gangs and criminals but today it is the fact that they carry guns which makes them truly intimidating.

One would suspect that guns would be less available then during the period when they were still legally available, no? Unfortunately, the prohibition of guns has also led to a large black market dealing with this £500 (pounds) a pop commodity.

And now, much like in the USA, the flaw in handling this situation lies not in the lack of strong anti-gun laws, but in the failure toact on them. The illegal posessio of a firearm carries a mandatory 5 year sentence. Though it's not really mandatory, because a lot of judges are refusing to hand them out, to the great dismay of certain law enforement officials.

I personally dislike mandatory sentences, as I believe in a case-by-case review of individual crimes, and before anything I believe in rehabilitation. So here's the problem I'm concerned with: the cops and courts aren't on the same wavelength! This is a much bigger issue, a far more important and dangerous one, than the sentencing of individual criminals.

Unless you can get all bodies and branches of the government to move in the same direction, you're in for a lot of trouble.
Don't say I didn't warn you!