Man, 82, hits robber with lettuce

[MmmSkyscraper]

BBC News

:laugh:

GET SOME!

 

[MichaelD]

Redoing this news story to more accurately describe what happened...

*ahem*

Pansy ass thief with unloaded shotgun scared off by elderly Alzheimer's patient with bag of groceries!

A thief wielding an uloaded shotgun burst into the local market today attempting to terrorize the cashier and patrons. Joe, an elderly man suffering from Alzheimer's clocked him in the head with his bag of groceries. After they captured the thief (he tripped over a sleeping dog while running away) local police stated the gun was unloaded and the trigger mechanism was broken. Lucky Joe!

If this happened in some large city in the USA, the end result would've been very different, unfortunately.

 

[Bryophyte]

:laugh: Awesome.

 

[apac]

He's lucky the robber was afraid to use that shotgun.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

The moral of the story is don't fvck with George Smith and his lettuce of death.

 

[MarkW]

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper
The moral of the story is don't fvck with George Smith and his lettuce of death.

Especially since he had bottles of bleach and washing liquid in the same bag as the lettuce. My vast bagging experience working at Kroger's in my past, that is a big no no!

 

[mallik]

So how rampant is gun use over there? I thought that pretty much nobody carried a gun, but lately I've been hearing quite a few stories about crimes involving guns.

 

[irishScott]

owned

 

[jagec]

If I was 82 I'd totally do that. Either you're a hero, or you're a dead hero, and considering you're in the sunset of your life anyway...

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: mallik
So how rampant is gun use over there? I thought that pretty much nobody carried a gun, but lately I've been hearing quite a few stories about crimes involving guns.

Taken from figures for 2004/05, for England and Wales only:

* In 2004/05 there were a provisional 10,979 firearm offences, an increase of 6% since 2003/04. The number of offences has risen each year since 1997/98

* Firearms were involved in 1,206 more serious incidents of violence against the person (other than homicide) in 2004/05, the same proportion (3%) as in 2003/04. Less than half of one per cent (0.5%) of other offences of violence against the person involved firearms in 2004/05, though the 4,568 offences recorded represents a 31% increase from 2003/04.

* Firearms were used in 73 (8.5%) homicides in 2004/05, five more than the previous year.

* There were 2,659 firearm robberies in 2004/05 (4% of all robbery offences), a 9% decrease from the previous year.

* Handguns, including imitation handguns, were used in 4,326 offences during 2004/05, a decrease of 16% from 2003/04. Shotguns were used in 590 offences, an 18% decrease from the previous year.

* There were 412 firearm offences that resulted in serious injury in 2004/057, a 6% decrease compared to 2003/04. The number of slight injuries increased by 81% to 3,361 offences; it seems likely that changes to the categories used in classifying these offences have partly contributed to this increase. More than half of these slight injuries (55%) were caused by imitation weapons.

* Imitation weapons were used in 3,332 offences in 2004/05, an increase of 55% (1,186 offences) from the previous year. Ball-bearing guns accounted for a large majority of these.

Firearms are taken to be involved in an incident if they are fired, used as a blunt instrument against a person, or used in a threat.

Source

It's been getting worse, particularly since the start of this year. There were a number of shootings in the last few months around London, particularly teenagers. We're a long way off from US levels but the upward trend is disturbing.

 

[Auryg]

When did the UK ban guns?

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: Auryg
When did the UK ban guns?

Not an expert on it, but it was after the Dunblane massacre according to Wiki

Following the 1997 General Election, the Labour government of Tony Blair introduced the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, banning the remaining .22 cartridge handguns, and leaving only muzzle-loading and historic handguns legal, as well as certain sporting handguns (e.g. "Long-Arms") that fall outside the Home Office Definition of a "Handgun" due to their dimensions.