So (formerly) Great Britain has “some of the toughest gun laws in the world,” according to former Home Secretary Alun Michael, gun laws that were necessary because (he said) “We recognize that only the strictest control of firearms will protect the public.”
They tell us that getting groped and probed and scanned by the TSA is necessary too, and for the same reason – “protecting the public.”
So much for airport security: Man ‘smuggled 80 guns into Britain’ by hiding them in suitcases
An American man is suspected of smuggling 80 weapons into the UK by hiding them in his suitcases.Former U.S. marine Steven Greenoe, who holds British citizenship, apparently strolled through airport security in both Britain and America with dozens of handguns stashed in his suitcases on ten flights last year.
He is believed to have delivered them to criminal contacts in the North West of England.
On one occasion, Greenoe was stopped after officials at Atlanta airport spotted the firearms.But incredibly he was allowed to board the flight after telling officials he worked as an international security consultant.
The revelations are an embarrassment for transatlantic security and for the UK Border Agency. (Ya THINK?)
It makes a mockery of security regulations which mean innocent passengers have to carry cosmetics in clear plastic bags when in fact Greenoe apparently had no problems carrying weapons in a suitcase. (Those regulations were already a mockery. Now they’re a belly-laugh.)
So… did Project Fast and Furious expand to include Jolly Olde England? Is Greenoe a BATF employee, on or off the books?
Oh, and get this:
A number of 9mm semi-automatic pistols believed to have been bought by Mr Greenoe for $500 each in a North Carolina gunshop were offered for sale at up to £5,000 a piece in Britain a week later, according to the Times.
More than 60 weapons, including more than 20 Glock pistols and more than a dozen Ruger handguns, are understood to be still unaccounted for.
Wow! At current exchange rates, that’s an $8200 return on a $500 investment (minus, of course, the plane fare.) Still, you’re looking at close to a 16:1 ROI if you can move five at a time, and he’s moved at least 60 guns that they know about. At a guess, we’re talking $400k worth of profit.
I am once again reminded of Father Guido Sarducci’s Five-Minute University Economics class: “Supply and-a Demand. That’s it.”
Apparently no one in Britain’s gun-control culture has taken that one.