Gun Culture in the uk

[Flibb]

Spme good points all round. Just a few clarifications. In order to own a shotgun you need a certificate, this certificate has the details on it of all shotguns that you own, the Police also have a record of all shotguns owned, this type of certificate is called a shotgun certificate. Rifles, large capacity shotguns (anything that can hold over 3 shots), high powered air rifles (over 12ft/lb) and black powder pistols (these tend to be revolvers, muzzle loaded with around 6-8 shots) can only be owned on a firearms certificate, these come in a couple of flavours but in general one types for normall people the others for people dealing in guns.
I dont understand why guns should be totally banned, they are used by millions of people in a highly skilled sport that is conducted to olympic levels (summer and winter olympic games). Totally banning them in this country would make no difference to armed crime, it was just stop people who are among the most law abiding from conducting their sport.
Flibb

[DaBeeeenster]

Originally posted by nichomach
Not really, since proper application of such regulations (which DID exist, but were not applied) would have prevented the tragedy at Dunblane, so it's worth doing, albeit that it would have no effect upon the general run of firearms related crime.

The simplest way to prevent dunblane is to make owning a handgun illegal, period. I dont think there can be an argument here. There are civil liberty arguments, but not practicality ones.

Originally posted by nichomach

I agree with your comment that we should inquire into the root causes of firearms crime, and I would argue that the blanket ban didn't even treat the symptom, let alone the disease; so much so that I think it's arguable that gun control and gun crime are entirely separate issues.

I think they probably are, yes.

Originally posted by nichomach

I respectfully disagree with you on private firearms ownership.

I've only ever fired a "proper" gun and that was when I was living in California. I have to say I very much enjoyed it (it was a dirty great hand gun, largest caliber you could use, made a hideous noise). I dont know, I just dont agree with it. There's no real rationale behind it. I just think the world would be a better place without guns, and consequently a gun is a negative, irrespective of its context.

[DaBeeeenster]

Originally posted by Flibb
Spme good points all round. Just a few clarifications. In order to own a shotgun you need a certificate, this certificate has the details on it of all shotguns that you own, the Police also have a record of all shotguns owned, this type of certificate is called a shotgun certificate. Rifles, large capacity shotguns (anything that can hold over 3 shots), high powered air rifles (over 12ft/lb) and black powder pistols (these tend to be revolvers, muzzle loaded with around 6-8 shots) can only be owned on a firearms certificate, these come in a couple of flavours but in general one types for normall people the others for people dealing in guns.
I dont understand why guns should be totally banned, they are used by millions of people in a highly skilled sport that is conducted to olympic levels (summer and winter olympic games). Totally banning them in this country would make no difference to armed crime, it was just stop people who are among the most law abiding from conducting their sport.
Flibb

Can people not use very low power sporting pistols? I'm not up on the technical points, but is this not the case? Or could they not use air pistols?

[daniel_owen_uk]

Thats kinda like saying why dont we all drive slow cars.

Personally I have a fair few friends who have shotgun licences, rimfire licences and some big bore game licences, they love the sport and could only do it using those weapons.

Dunblaine was a tragedy that, with the state of the gun laws at the time, was waiting to happen, however gun crime still exists even with these strict certifaction processes.

A shotgun is as dangerous (if not more dangerous), so why aren't these banned? I think hand guns should be allowed but monitored extremely carefully.

[nichomach]

The simplest way to prevent dunblane is to make owning a handgun illegal, period. I dont think there can be an argument here. There are civil liberty arguments, but not practicality ones.

So a massacre couldn't be committed with a shotgun then? News to me

Seriously, though, there's nothing, repeat NOTHING to stop a recurrence but with an illegally held firearm, and if someone wants to badly enough, they will manage to obtain a handgun from somewhere (or a machine pistol, or an assault rifle). Consequently, the practicality issue IS open to debate. Further, I would argue that the civil liberties issue is at least as important as the practicality issue.

[spazman]

Originally posted by daniel_owen_uk
A shotgun is as dangerous (if not more dangerous), so why aren't these banned? I think hand guns should be allowed but monitored extremely carefully.

Bit harder to hide a 12 guage shotgun in your trousers than it is a pistol.

[Knoxville]

Disagree, a sawn off is very easily hidden and just as dangerous at close range if not more.