Dear Cosmic,
Unfortunately there have always been nutters. When I used to live in the UK they were called punks, skinheads or mods. No one really took them too seriously, even in the stands at Highbury or White Hart Lane. They were always looking for agro and trying to be hard with their steel DMs but they werent armed. In those good old days, it was really hard to own your own licensed gun, you needed that expensive license, secure safe hidden from sight at home, the police came round ever so often to check and your arms were only taken out for an airing every so often to drive off to a rifle range in the countryside for practise. Nowadays, unfortunately, arms are available for anyone who has the money. I have heard about the considerable rise in gun crime at home since the ban, but this was to be expected as its the same everywhere, and unfortunately its the nutters who get their hands on them. In the case you mentioned, the chief of police was to blame and should have been taken to court instead of being allowed to resign gracefully....