Westhoughton, England: A view of the sniper from Across the Pond

by Michael Wilkinson, Co-editor of The Informer, based in Westhoughton, England

The focus on the sniper shootings has been prominent in the UK media over the past few weeks, as well as the continuing pressure with the War on Iraq. It is fair to say that the terrifying sniper shootings have captured the hearts of many people over here.

The coverage of the sniper attacks has been colossal here in Britain. The British media has presented its countless column inches of newspaper articles and its hours of news footage by using the views of Americans as a focal point. Concluding all the coverage, many of the Americans that have come forward to speak to journalists are frightened of an uncertain future. "I know the odds of being shot are low, but it's like the lottery. It
happens to somebody," said Ross Steidel, a 21-year-old golf professional, from Washington.

There is always the concern that a similar astonishing event could occur over the pond in Britain, but suffice to say, the people that we have talked to have not publicly discussed such possibilities, possibly in the fear that anything is possible. However, our gun control laws do put a firm stance on such an occurrence. Here in the UK, it is illegal to have a gun unless it is registered for a sport or if you are a farmer, which eliminates the fear that anybody could shoot anyone at anytime. This does not mean in anyway that shootings do not take place. In fact, we often hear of men, women and children being shot down to the floor.

It is very rare that you even see a policeman or woman with a gun and because guns have been banned for a considerable amount of time, it is unfair to say whether crime has increased or decreased since the law was enforced. But there is a feeling amongst Britons that the law is in favour of the criminals and that justice isn't being served accordingly.

Whilst the fear of random shooting doesn't cross our minds every day, it is certainly possible for criminals in the UK to obtain guns and other weapons on the "Black Market" and they are often smuggled through the Channel Tunnel. On this note, there are mixed views concerning the tightening of gun control laws and whilst no official survey has been conducted at Westhoughton High School, it is fair to say that there are many people who are passionate about inflicting further rules or scrapping some laws concerning gun control up and down the country.

To put the shootings into context, Washington is at the top of a list, which highlights the world's murder capitals. A survey conducted by the UK Home Office of 20 European and nine North American cities put the US capital way out in front with a murder rate of 69.3 per 100,000 population. That suggests Washington is about 170 times more dangerous than the Belgian capital, Brussels, which came bottom with 0.4 murders per 100,000.

Washington was a long way ahead of the second most murderous city, Philadelphia, which had a rate of 27.4. The nine American cities in the survey all came in the top 12 of the poll. San Diego had the lowest rate with 8 homicides per 100,000. Only three European cities came out worse.

Moscow, contending with the rise of the Russian Mafia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was the most dangerous European city in the survey with 18.1 killings per 100,000. Helsinki and Lisbon also ranked highly. London came fifth from bottom with an average of 2.1 cases of murder, infanticide or manslaughter per 100,000.

Belfast was the most dangerous UK city in the survey with a death rate of 4.4. Edinburgh's figure was 2.4. The UK Home Secretary, Jack Straw, said it was one league table in which the UK was happy to fall near the bottom. He said: "Few people would have guessed that both Amsterdam (7.7) and Lisbon (9.7) have murder rates over three times higher than that of London. Moreover despite the impact of zero tolerance policies, New York City's homicide rate - at 16.8 - is eight times London's."