UK gun laws

There seems to be a lot more in the news around crimes involving guns - are the UK gun laws too weak?

It looks to me that anyone who wants to use a gun for sports or needs a gun to control pests can get hold of one.

How about - sports - you have to leave the weapon locked up at the gun club - you can't keep it at home - you can only use it on club premises - there are only a couple of gun cabinet keys held by responsible club officials.

Pest control - how about using a 'specialist' pest controller - who can use guns - instead of issuing firearms certificates to every small holder/farmer who wants one?

Guns only have one purpose - so IMHO we should do even more to restrict access to them in the UK.

 

Issuing gun licenses seems to be in the hands of the local police.
A bit of a "quaint" way of going about it.

 

No, I think our gun laws are some of the strictest in the world. If it has been reported crime involving guns is on the increase, then its what more can be done to stop the smuggling of firearms into the country that end up into the wrong hands.

 

No, I think we should target irresponsible and potentially dangerous individuals, not gun owners as a whole. Changing gun laws due to the actions of one individual or even a handful is myopic and moronic.

Er, what? You've contradicted yourself in your own post by saying they can be used for both pest control and sport! We should also have them for self-defence IMO.

I think people should be allowed to enjoy any sport they want on their own property if they have the appropriate facilities for it and take the correct precautions.

Nick

 

Totally agree with that statement.
Its ridiculous when something happens like this and immediately someone somewhere wants the law changed.
Knee jerk reactions only cause problems in the long term.

 

I don't think the gun laws are weak as the police do check the guns and amo and where you keep it, it is better to keep a gun at a gun club as then you don't have to have the cabernets to store the guns and amo at home, i think now you have to let the police look at your medical records, i used to have a shotgun and a firearms licence but the rules were getting stronger so i gave it up

But even people with licence's can behave badly, we used to have a shoot at the back of our house and the people there didn't understand the rules or couldn't give a dam, lots of times we had pellets land on our patio and hit our house, once, i seen them arrive so i went up to the bedroom to watch them, with in five minutes pellets hit the bedroom window, went down to the patio look for pellets, found ten, when another lot of pellets came raining down so went to have a word with them, they tryied to fill me with lots of meanless words "what goes up must come down" etc this went on for 3 years, when we got shot at when we went for a walk and pellets rained down 10 feet away, then a flying dead duck hit our roof and landed on the patio 2 feet from the back door!!
in the end we rang the land owner and said what was happening and it got stoped there and then
the owner of the shotting club just didn't unstand the law/rules, he even said "no one is shooting toward your house, so then i open my hand and said "what's this then" in my hand was shotgun pellets, and then i started to say about some of the law's, he then said "sorry" just what i wanted to hear then i phoned the land owner he is now banned

It's not the guns that is the problem it's the people using them, you won't stop the nasty bad guys with stronger lience's

 

One thing i would like to see is that anyone who has a gun lience is made to go on a cource to be tolled the law and the rules

 

I just think about all the millions who have fought and died for our freedoms. And yet we seem to be increasingly banning everything and approaching a rather strict form of self-imposed authoritarianism! And each new restriction of our freedoms lately seems to be applauded by the majority of the media and by an increasing portion of the public. Doesn't that negate all their efforts and sacrifices?

Nick

 

Most of the gun problems in the UK are with illegally held guns, so it doesn't matter what you do regarding tightening up the gun laws that kind of thing will still go on.

We do get the kind of thing that went on the other day also, but it is rare, and shows that the system needs tweaking.

The person involved could quite easily have just driven into a crowded street and perhaps have killed even more people.

 

Very rare in the UK. What happened the other day brought back memories of the Cumbria shootings in 2010 to many people, I only live 2 miles away where one of the victims was shot, two of the victims where regular customers to us.

To this day, nobody who knew the perpetrator thought he was dangerous or a risk. Both incidents are very similar as they both targeted a family member before the random shootings. Don't really know what you can tweak to the law to prevent it happening again.

What concerned most people around me, was the length of time he had to carry out his attack. Even the sirens from the nuclear plant could be heard for miles, its the only time the site has went into lockdown.

 

A pest controller would need to be paid so I can't see that happening Clanless. A lot of people farming here in the Highlands are crofters and struggling to make ends meet. I will say that I don't like guns at all and if I hear one in the neighbourhood I tuck myself away indoors.

No, never! Look at the state America is in regarding guns! We don't need guns for self defence, that's opening the path up for 'shoot to kill' if you don't like the look of someone or a wrong word at the wrong time, then claiming self defence.

My son (who is English) lives in America and I wish you could talk to him on the subject. I think he'd change your mind.

 

The US are in a great state from where I'm sitting Sheal, they're one of the freest countries in the world. In 2019, just over 38,000 people died in gun-related deaths and just under 24,000 of those were suicides. That seems bad, but when you realise this is out of a population of just over 328 million, you understand that as tragic as those figures are, they're a very small price to pay for the American population to experience the freedom of gun ownership.

America's gun culture in charts

"We don't need guns for self defence, that's opening the path up for 'shoot to kill' if you don't like the look of someone or a wrong word at the wrong time, then claiming self defence."

Valid concerns, but how often does this actually happen in countries like the US?

Nick

 

It may be one of the freest countries in the world and seems like a land of plenty, but the truth is a high percentage of the population are heavily in debt. America is a country for the rich. But that's a different story to the one we are discussing here.

And how many of those would still be alive if it wasn't for guns?

More often than many of us are led to believe, with a law that allows shoot to kill in self defence in many American states.

 

The only thing I will say is if we are not allowed guns for self defence then at least the police should be armed at all times so that they can defend the public.