Quote:
Originally Posted by Steel_Tomb
The thing that annoys me is that tragedies like this will spur on the Government to bring in some rushed through policy that will penalise the honest gun owners in this country... like me... who comply with all the exceedingly strict laws and regulations, whilst letting all the scum keep theirs because they don't know where it is. Take the handgun ban for instance... do you really think the criminals handed in their weapons like good old chaps? No, it was the honest people who went through the lengthy process of getting their FAC that got shafted. I love to shoot, I've met lots of great people and find a lot of satisfaction in going to small club competitions.
A tragedy... and my heartfelt condolences go out to the families of those who have been killed today, but I know what the headlines will be next... "new anti-gun legislation...."
Will a Government in this country ever conceive a policy that only effects the criminals instead of shafting honest folk? Granted this guy wasn't a criminal, but he obviously had a psychological problem to go on such a rampage.
At the end of the day, you can't foresee every eventuality. I just hope that rare occasions like this don't mean that honest people are penalised.
To summarise what I had to do:
Spent £350 on a secure gun cabinet, rawl bolted to the wall... inspections by firearm liaison officers to make sure my security is adequate. £50 for my FAC, which is reviewed every five years, I have to list exactly what weapon I own and the ammo... and restricted to a limited amount of ammunition. I have to to a registered member of a shooting club for which I pay about £100 a year. With paying for my rifle, a semi-automatic AR15 with a .22LR upper with optics etc cost me just over £1500. Not a small amount by any means. I'm hoping to buy a .223 upper for it, but need to list on my FAC a new variation of the same weapon and get it approved. Constantly jumping through hoops... not that I'm complaining. I just want to point out what we have to do in the UK to be allowed ownership of a firearm.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steel_Tomb
OTH... if you read my post properly you would see I wasn't comparing him as a criminal or "scum":
"Granted this guy wasn't a criminal, but he obviously had a psychological problem to go on such a rampage"
Like I said, you can't predict every eventuality... if he was a legal owner with the relevant checks then perhaps there were mistakes made in the past? People die every day, I'm not trying to play down this tragedy... but how many people are stabbed to death every day?
Knife crime in this country is so rampant that people aren't so surprised by it when people are killed as its perhaps regarded as "the norm" by them. Yet as soon as someone is shot dead everyone is up in arms fearing for their lives from the loony gun owners. It feels to me that there is a big social stigma in the UK against people who own guns, you say to someone "Oh yeah I own a rifle and go shooting at the weekends with friends" and they look at you as if you've got a screw loose. However if I were to say "Oh did you know I recently started archery" they would be like oh wow that's interesting... arrows kill just the same as bullets.
I hope this post has some kind of structure to it, as I'm in a bit of a ranty mood this morning lol.
|
Two crackin posts IMO....I used to be involved in checking the security measures and FAC's of a gun club in Newcastle.
Only on one occasion was it necessary to enforce matters because of non compliance and that was little more than an administrative technicality.
Not long after Hungerford and the total banning of hand guns etc. the club turned to black powder in an effort to survive.
Six months later it was bulldozed to make way for a car park.
Still plenty of hand guns on the streets if you know where to go....problem is, they are all held by the very people the legislation was intended to protect the public from
