Donald Trump on Friday said that a hospital in London is “like a war zone” from all of the knife attacks, and it seems a London surgeon may be backing it up, MSN is reporting .
On Friday night, Trump was addressing the NRA Convention in Dallas when he brought up the situation in England as an example of why he believes gun control doesn’t work. Like elsewhere in Europe, England has extremely strict gun laws compared to the U.S., and Trump suggested that criminals have simply switched to using knives – and in the process, leaving their would-be victims unarmed and unable to defend themselves.
And though he didn’t mention any specific London hospitals by name, Trump did say that in some hospitals it’s like a “war zone” from all of the knife attacks.
“They don’t have guns. They have knives and instead there’s blood all over the floors of this hospital. They say it’s as bad as a military war zone hospital… knives, knives, knives. London hasn’t been used to that. They’re getting used to that. It’s pretty tough.”
And indeed, Trump may have the words of a British surgeon to back him up. Though the surgeon’s remarks were made a month ago, Dr. Martin Griffiths of Royal London Hospital did make a very similar statement to The Daily Mail.
“We routinely have children under our care – 13, 14 15-year-olds are daily occurrences… Some of my military colleagues have described the practice here as similar to being at Bastion, which is a very worrying comment to hear.”
NOTE: In this context, “Bastion” refers to Camp Bastion, a British Armed Forces camp in Afghanistan.
UK: Barts Health NHS Trust surgeon says children are admitted daily for GUN and knife wounds in London. Military colleagues liken their hospital work to Camp Bastion in Afghanistan https://t.co/NINhufrKmK pic.twitter.com/bAT8wS1txc
— redball (@redball2) May 5, 2018
In fact, London and other British cities are in the midst of an epidemic of gang violence, although whether or not gun control is a reason for that violence is a matter of opinion and is outside the purview of this article.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time Trump has used London, or England, to make a point. For example, he and London Mayor Sadiq Khan has long been at odds, especially over Trump’s re-tweeting of anti-Muslim propaganda from a British extremist group. Further, Trump once claimed that Britain’s National Health Service was “going broke and not working,” while saying that a similar nationalized health care plan wouldn’t work in the U.S.
