Lords: rise of CCTV is threat to freedom – Guardian.co.uk: The steady expansion of the “surveillance society” risks undermining fundamental freedoms including the right to privacy, according to a House of Lords report published today.
The peers say Britain has constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world in the name of combating terrorism and crime and improving administrative efficiency.
The report, Surveillance: Citizens and the State, by the Lords’ constitution committee, says Britain leads the world in the use of CCTV, with an estimated 4m cameras, and in building a national DNA database, with more than 7% of the population already logged compared with 0.5% in the America.
I guess getting RFID chips implanted into persons is the next step. Hell, if you have an Oyster card, your movements can be very easily tracked while using public transportation.
#30–Ah Yea==I d/l’d the pdf document. Frustrating they don’t include England in the European Stats==or have I missed it.
Anyhoo, did I also miss something or is this paper an analysis of only two factors: Gun ownership and Gun Legality?
Its always been recognized that Switzerland had high gun ownership and low gun murder rates. With that single stat, it is immediately clear that “OTHER FACTORS” are involved in the murder rate of different countries.
So what does this study add that you think wasn’t already well understood?
Man, are you guys going to freak when HD RAM-based cameras the size of buttons and costing a dollar a piece are attached to…. everything. With contents posted on the internet by the people who own them… ordinary citizens. We will be Big Brother.
The irony being that as soon as it becomes readily apparent that not a damn thing can be done about it – it will be embraced by society as a “good” thing.
30 Ah_Yea. When I knew him, Gary Mauser was a marketing prof and gun expert. And a smart fellow.
RBG
Here is a bit of an answer for you, bobbo.
It a direct quote of the abstract in the article.
“This article examines a broad range of international data that bear on two distinct but interrelated questions: first, whether widespread firearm access is an important contributing factor in murder and/or suicide, and second, whether the introduction of laws that restrict general access to firearms has been successful in reducing violent crime, homicide or suicide. Our conclusion from the available data is that suicide, murder and violent crime rates are determined by basic social, economic and/or cultural factors with the availability of any particular one of the world’s myriad deadly instrument being irrelevant.”
That should pretty much sum it up.
“So what does this study add that you think wasn’t already well understood?”
From what I have gleaned from comments on this blog, as well as your own, that there are quite a few things misunderstood.
For example, there is a difference between gun deaths and total deaths. Gun control advocates always publicize their “success” by pointing out that gun related deaths have decreased by restricting handguns. What they don’t point out is the dramatic increase in total death and violent crime. The difference is the weapon of choice may have changed from a gun to a machete, baseball bat, etc. All gun control does is un-level the playing field. What 95 lbs woman is going to fend off a 250 lbs man with a machete?
This point is expounded upon in the paper’s section “GEOGRAPHIC, HISTORICAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC PATTERNS” and “DEMOGRAPHIC PATTERNS”.
The paper also takes an in-depth analysis of suicide and other types of death.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Look at the papers this paper references, and it becomes apparent that the case for gun control is unfounded.
But to get back on the subject. The reason the UK is under their Orwellian nightmare is because of the state usurping the rights of the individual to protect themselves.
This wouldn’t be as much of an issue if government officials and executives were also under constant surveillance. Will this happen?