Rifles still allowed in Britain?
 

I thought all firearms were outlawed out there?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5209632.stm

-S

Nope you can have a bolt action rifle normaly a .22 or .308 you can have a shotgun, i own an AK47S (deactivated of course) i also own many other rifles.

Weird that a rifle is allowed since it could be considered an offensive weapon, but a hadgun which is purely a defensive short ranged weapon is not. I guess this is to appease the deer hunters.

-S

We have the ridiculous situation here where target pistols are banned, so our olympic team have to go abroad to train :O( Not quite sure how they're going to manage that one in 2012.

you call a handgun a defensive weapon but in reality (at least here) they are the type that are mostly used in crimes, its also an issue of concealment, walking around with a rfile in the middle of a town centre makes you a obvious target to our trigger happy armed police therefore isnt as appealing to crooks as handguns that can be hidden.

call handguns a purely defensive weapon to the many people who have lost family members to them.

[this isnt a dig at you, just the us classification of handguns as a 'defence']

I hear ya, but a handgun is useless at any real range. I have several myself and if you think your going to hit anything reliably with it over a rifle, well think again. It is a defensive weapon, that is being employed effectively as an offensive weapon in your case. The reason it is being successful too is that people think that the guy in question won't miss (hollywood has a role here), and grovel vs taking action. My bets are, since it is a banned weapon, that he has no training with it and can't hit squat! So I'd be apt to just run away! :yep:

-S

Not deer, but fox.

Fox hunting with cute Beagle dogs was outlawed and replaced by rifle hunting.

Yes, there are so many NGO's and victims and causes and humanitarians going around sometimes they clash and contradict each other. They can't find enough time to plan their combined actions and coordinate even though they want to engineer the entire society.

In this case, enviromentalists got the upper hand, by pure accident.

But returning to contradiction: 40 Beagles versus 1 Fox was silly indeed, but that's more natural than a bullet to the heart, isn't it? Not only that, now there are hundreds of former hunting Dogs waiting at animal shelters for euthanasia.

Save one Fox, kill 39 dogs.

Good thing animal protectors know their maths.

Oops, wait, there's already one bullet for every Fox out there, let me rephrase that:

Save none Fox, kill 39 dogs.

Hahahaha! Don't make me laugh! Sad though.

-S

Why did you think that ?

I was just under the impression that all firearms were outlawed in Britain. At least they get to keep their rifles. I guess an AR-15 is out of the question? :D

-S

Well you must have got that impression from somewhere and I am interested to find out where as I hear it so often it's starting to worry me.:cool:

The prohibited list is large and is not likely to get any smaller as gun control is a one way street but the following link should make plain exactly what is still permitted in Great Britain, note that the law in Northen Ireland is different.



http://www.met.police.uk/firearms-en...s/f_prohb1.htm

OMG! You can't even have a CO2 pistol or rifle? How is that any worse than a .22?

Also - no pump shotguns! No plinking with anything other than a .22 due to this statement:
Common sense dictates that there are many types of firearms, especially those designed for military use, that have no place in the sporting field or hobby of shooting.

The best plinkers in my book are military styled rifles! .22 is kind of pointless and boring!

The one legal handgun - a 9mm revolver! Scratch that - 1800's muzzle loader is also excepted!

Anyway, thats a tough deal. That is like looking your citizens in the eye and telling them that they are children and not able to handle grown up things! Sorry, but I'd move! :down:

-S

Plinking ? That sounds like irresponsible behaviour and I wouldn't mention that if you ever apply for a cert over here.:lol: It does depend where you live to a great extent, some forces are far more sympathetic than others and fortunately my local force is one of those so service rifle is still an option which is plenty enough for me.

I guess it's down to what you're used to, most people in the UK don't (and never have) own a firearm, so it's no big deal to us. A country with a more deeply ingrained gun culture may see that as restrictive, where we may view their culture as extremely liberal - which is right/wrong is a whole different discussion :O)

One of the sticking points with the handgun ban here in the UK was to 'prevent' gun-crime by forcing legitimate sport/target/club shooters with (at the time) legally held and certificated firearms to give up their weapons/sport.
As is evidenced by a number for very public shootings in nottingham and elsewhere in the UK, it is obvious that the only people who are inconvenienced by the current handgun ban are those who were members of shooting clubs and private licenced firearms holders. The criminal elements the ban was designed to curtail have carried on much the same as before - shooting eachother and various innocent persons who just happen to be in the way.
Way to go with the knee jerk reaction and media scaremongering on this issue, just think of all those FAC (firearms certificate) holders who now will not have the opportunity to suddenly loose all of their marbles and go on a bloody shooting rampage through whatever quiet, sleepy village they happen to reside.

I own a couple of airguns which I use fairly regularly - a .177 pistol and .22 rifle both spring guns and I am currently looking at a PCP (pre-charged pneumatic) rifle to add to this. None of these require a firearms certificate - yet - though with the bad press and misinformation bandied about in the media, largely drawn from the irresponsible actions of a very few individuals with tragic consequences. There is talk of restricting the sale of airguns to face to face transactions only at a RFD (registered firearms dealer) as opposed to the thriving mailorder business that many sport shooting purveyors now indulge.
Most people who, like myself take shooting fairly seriously, are members of various official organisations like BASC (british association for shooring and conservation) etc which offers up to 5m liability insurance (amongst other things) to its members. It's not without cost, but to some extent further legitimises my indulgence - PC plod is more likely to be relaxed about me shooting (with the proper permissions and documentation) as a member of BASC as opposed to some grotty little oikk who has just gone to their equivelent of JB-Sports and bought a nasty cheap chinese airgun and has decided to turn it upon the local feline population, fireman or toddlers or whatever.

Blanket bans do nothing to solve the problem of irresponsible use of guns here in the UK; all it does is demonise the large majority of persons who conduct themselves in accordence with the stipulations of the law regarding the use, ownership and conduct of firearm or airgun possesion.
This is possibly the only area where I feel you americans have a good thing going as compared to us brits- is seems from here that just about anybody can own a firearm for 'fun' or self defence - this is reflected in the apparent general attitude towards guns as something normal and not to fear: to not run screaming to the hills in fear of your life and of anarchy, to hastily throw together some BS legislature which is badly run and ill conceived from the outset.
Hey ho, the nanny state is very much alive and dusting the dinning table here in britain and looks to be having her hours extended and her contract renewed indeffinitely, not to mention the attractive rise in her salary and benefits :roll: