I never meant that the reason there were more guns was BECAUSE they were illegal
I meant there are more guns in circulation and they are now ALL (or very nearly all)in illegal hands rather than in private licenced owners hands.
Where as the poice/goverment used to have some idea of who/when/where and how many firearms owners were in circulation, now they don't.
The gun laws were meant to reduce the number of incidents like Hungerford by removing hand guns from peole like Michael Ryan and from society in general
Obviously it didn't work as guns now seem to be easier than ever to get.
There were laws in place already to assess the applicants for a fire arms licence. Michael Ryan was subject to checks by his local police, however they missed the signs of his growing dependence/lust for guns
The option to own/target shoot, a hand gun was removed from the general law abiding public. It DID NOT however remove guns from society
All i meant to point out was that making things illegal DOESN'T make the problem go away, it just makes it go underground, where there are no checks on who is buying/operating/using said banned item.
You can still get pit bulls and you would still be able to get Rotties, the same as you can get drugs and weapons, but with the regulation of it being legal removed you open it up to the less desirable elements/organised crime.
It's too big a subject to cover in the constraints of a forum like this.