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Cumbria Shootings 'Prove Gun Laws Need A Shake-Up'
Daily Express (UK) ^ | 03 Jun 2010 | John Ingham

Posted on 06/03/2010 8:23:26 AM PDT by relictele

Britain's gun laws need a complete overhaul

BRITAIN’S gun laws need a complete overhaul in the wake of the shootings, a military hero said yesterday.

Doug Beattie, who won the Military Cross in Afghanistan, called for gun owners to undergo an annual psychological assessment.

He said: “There should be a fundamental look at the ownership of any weapons. I do not see any requirement for gun ownership except for specific businesses.

“Sporting guns should be held in a centralised location, such as a sporting club. Anyone who does have a gun should have a psychological assessment each year.”

In the UK, applicants for gun licences are interviewed by the police or firearms licensing authority before they acquire a weapon. Licence holders must provide doctors’ reports, disclose any criminal convictions and state why they want a gun, a process that takes about eight weeks.

It is not known if Derrick Bird held a licence. Nearly 600,000 people in the UK legally own a shotgun and 100,000 own a firearm – a rifle or pistol.

However, firearms expert Michael Yardley, who gave evidence to the inquiry into the Dunblane shootings, said that the same numbers own a shotgun or firearm illegally.

Simon Clarke, of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, said the UK’s licensing system was among the toughest in the world.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: banglist; cumbria; gunlaws; shootings; uk
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They don't hang about in Britain. The bodies aren't yet cold and people are already starting to bleat about gun laws....on second thought many Americans do that too.

What is a bit sobering is to see a military veteran, who should know better, claim that banning weapons will eliminate them from society and that such a ban would have any effect on the black market and/or crazed killers.

One can only imagine the farcical, useless 'psychological assessment' put together by a lot of flaming socialists (regardless of whether they call themselves Tories, Lib Dem or Labour). It literally would be the modern day Thought Police conveniently located in George Orwell's home nation.

I note that one victim's life was taken as he bravely attempted to attack the gunman with a fencepost. Cheap jokes aside I wonder if his bravery would have been better served and rewarded via the availability and use of a handgun.

1 posted on 06/03/2010 8:23:26 AM PDT by relictele
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To: relictele
It is not known if Derrick Bird (the shooter) held a license.

Punish the innocent anyway!

It's the Liberal way!

2 posted on 06/03/2010 8:26:32 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law." -- Aristotle)
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To: relictele

Gun laws, the tools of tyrants.

I wonder what an armed citizen would have done.


3 posted on 06/03/2010 8:27:16 AM PDT by Tarpon (Obama-Speak ... the fusion of sophistry and Newspeak. It's not a gift, it's just lies.)
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To: relictele

Didn’t they have a law prohibiting shooting people already?


4 posted on 06/03/2010 8:28:27 AM PDT by cvq3842 (Freedom is worth fighting for.)
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To: relictele; Allegra; big'ol_freeper; Lil'freeper; TrueKnightGalahad; blackie; Larry Lucido; ...
“Doug Beattie, who won the Military Cross in Afghanistan,” is certainly brave but... on the subject of gun control, he is an idiot!
5 posted on 06/03/2010 8:28:36 AM PDT by Bender2 ("I've got a twisted sense of humor, and everything amuses me." RAH Beyond this Horizon)
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To: relictele

“...What is a bit sobering is to see a military veteran, who should know better, claim that banning weapons will eliminate them from society and that such a ban would have any effect on the black market...”

When the UK Mohammedans develop a system of logistics it could arm a whole class of criminal fanatics while law-abiding Brits stay helpless.


6 posted on 06/03/2010 8:29:00 AM PDT by Monterrosa-24 (...even more American than a French bikini and a Russian AK-47.)
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To: relictele

To bad Britian didn’t have this kind of gun control in 1776, if it had it would still control the ‘Colonies’. (sarc)


7 posted on 06/03/2010 8:29:13 AM PDT by Kartographer (".. we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.")
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To: relictele

Just ban murder. Easy Peasy.


8 posted on 06/03/2010 8:30:34 AM PDT by Anitius Severinus Boethius
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To: relictele
Let's see...

A guy named Bird has a "sporting shotgun".

He doesn't give folks a sporting chance.

Gov't fails to protect people from gunman.

Another example of gov't failure against possible Islamic Jihadism.

When seconds count, the Bobbies are just half hours away.

Conclusion? More gun control.

9 posted on 06/03/2010 8:32:35 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: relictele

Brits are full fledged DUMBA$$E$!


10 posted on 06/03/2010 8:33:42 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
1955 Winchester advert Let Dads and Mums provide the "psychological assessments".
11 posted on 06/03/2010 8:35:37 AM PDT by Monterrosa-24 (...even more American than a French bikini and a Russian AK-47.)
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To: relictele

A completely predictable reaction and one that will almost certainly be acted upon to some degree. The subjects of the UK once were a free people but that condition is rapidly vanishing and once completely disarmed will come to an end altogether.


12 posted on 06/03/2010 8:39:20 AM PDT by scory
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To: relictele
Victorian gun crime - the shocking story
13 posted on 06/03/2010 8:41:01 AM PDT by smokingfrog ( - Free Men will always be armed with the Truth. -)
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To: relictele
I would call for non-gun owners to have an annual psychological examination.
14 posted on 06/03/2010 8:41:30 AM PDT by qrstuv
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To: relictele

The British are really behind thev curve here; they should pass a law against murder, and all their problems would be solved.


15 posted on 06/03/2010 8:41:42 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: relictele

Lock this idiot in a room with a crazed “gunman” and tell him he can have a gun too, but only after the government gets around to giving him his “psychological assessment”. Nothing beats stark reality to make people see things clearly.


16 posted on 06/03/2010 8:44:47 AM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: relictele
BRITAIN’S gun laws need a complete overhaul in the wake of the shootings, a military hero said yesterday.

Doug Beattie, who won the Military Cross in Afghanistan, called for gun owners to undergo an annual psychological assessment.

This statement supports FURTHER BIG-GOVERNMENT NANNY/POLICE-STATE INTRUSION (as if Mediocre Britain doesn't have enough already), and are the words, of a military "hero" who learned NOTHING from his service.

He is nothing more than an elitist, authoritarian, freedom-hating moron who would fill the bill perfectly if M.B. decided to go the DICTATORSHIP route.

17 posted on 06/03/2010 8:52:38 AM PDT by DocH (Official Right-Wing Extremist Veteran Seal Of Approval)
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To: Kartographer

“To bad Britian didn’t have this kind of gun control in 1776, if it had it would still control the ‘Colonies’.”

I’m sure you know, but for the lurkers..

Most of the first battles of our revolution were fought over munitions. The “shot heard round the world” at Lexington/Concorde was our rebels intercepting the redcoats on their way to confiscate a cache of weapons. The weapons were moved thanks to Paul Revere and those minute men. The British have been trying to ban “Freemen” from owning firearms for a long time. There is a reason the founders made it the second ammendment, and it ain’t about duck hunting.


18 posted on 06/03/2010 8:55:12 AM PDT by PilotDave (No, really, you just can't make this stuff up!!!)
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To: Monterrosa-24

My brother had an old Winchester .22 bolt action like the one shown.
It would fire when you closed the bolt on a round.


19 posted on 06/03/2010 8:55:34 AM PDT by tumblindice
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To: tumblindice

“...It would fire when you closed the bolt on a round.”

Controlling the direction of the muzzle is sure important when ya have a premature discharge.


20 posted on 06/03/2010 9:12:34 AM PDT by Monterrosa-24 (...even more American than a French bikini and a Russian AK-47.)
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