... of the security operation being put in place to protect Bush and his entourage. “The prospect of having hundreds of trigger-happy armed US bodyguards on British soil, though outrageous, will not affect our preparations for a huge demonstration,” Rees said. British police do not routinely carry weapons, so the prospect of foreign armed body guards flanking the president in London this month will be unprecedented. Head of British intelligence, MI5, Eliza Manningham Buller has already warned of an attempted strike by al-Qaida operatives and Stevens has also expressed concern over a human bomb attack.. It is for this reason that the police commissioner confirmed that the American secret service would have a “considerable presence in London under our direction.” The Home Office told Aljazeera.net on Monday that the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, could grant permission for non-nationals to carry weapons under the 1968 Firearms Act. But a spokesman for police headquarters Scotland Yard refused to comment on how many American armed bodyguards would be in London later this month."

Aljazeera

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"There are about 30,000 gun related deaths in the U.S. per year, plus a huge number of lesser violations ranging from minor wounds to lasting disabilities. Gun control of diverse sorts could hugely diminish these losses, yet U.S. gun control is ineffectual. Domestic guns have violently killed more U.S. citizens since JFK was murdered then all wars in this century. That’s right, more U.S. citizens have died in the last forty years from gun shots administered by other U.S. citizens or by themselves than have been killed in WWI, WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam, both Gulf Wars, and all other military engagements this century combined."

ZNet

*****

 http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D6DDB5D0-D9BC-44C9-A394-BC256D9DAF80.htm
 http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2003-10/28albert.cfm