Posted on 01/08/2003 6:01:11 PM PST by David Hunter
The government has tightened its clampdown on a rising gun culture, promising a ban on airguns and replica firearms. The proposal to outlaw replicas, which are often converted to fire live ammunition, comes hot on the heels of a suspected gangland shootout last week, which left two girls dead, cut down in the crossfire.
"Our crackdown on airguns is part of the government's wider commitment to tackle the anti-social behaviour which blights some of our most vulnerable communities and breeds a fear of crime," Home Secretary David Blunkett said in a statement on Wednesday. Carrying the weapons in public without a licence would become illegal, and the age limit for buying them would be raised from 14 to 17.
The proposal is the second instalment of tough new gun laws, and follows a pledge by Blunkett on Monday -- later partly retracted -- to introduce a mandatory five-year jail term for gun possession. Particularly dangerous were types of replicas most easily converted for live ammunition, and the Home Office said it was examining the possibility of banning their sale. Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth said replica weapons would still be available under licence for legitimate uses such as theatre and film-making. "Air guns can be lethal and are being used increasingly by louts to damage property and terrorise their local community," he added. Blunkett's proposals followed what he called "an unacceptable increase in the flagrant use of guns", with figures on firearm offences due on Thursday expected to show a 20 percent increase in England and Wales over the past year.
Firearms offences in Britain totalled 12,410 in 1997, according to government figures. The figure rose by 42 percent to 17,589 in 2001. The plans came in the wake of the fatal shooting of two teenage girls, Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespear, at a New Year party after becoming caught up in a suspected gangland shootout in Birmingham.
This shows the level of ignorance about gun issues among journalists. The age limit for buying airguns is already 17. The age limit for possession is 14. An adult can give one to a child of 14, or older, legally. But the stupid government is about to destroy airgun shooting as a sport for children just because of a bunch of juvenile delinquents. How typical. Do they think that the delinquents are just going to hand their airguns in during an amnesty? Are they hell. More erudite brilliance from the halfwit Blunkett.
What pisses me off is the way no one is questioning the logic of passing more gun laws. An ITN TV report I saw on Sunday evening showed a reporter dry-firing an imitation blank-firing replica beretta, with a voice-over saying that the government is considering banning replicas and some airguns that look like real pistols. The reason they gave for banning replicas is that they can be modified to fire real bullets. But that's extremely difficult to do and the government's own figures prove that its rare to find modified replicas being used by criminals. We have some of the toughest firearm deactivation legislation in the world. Reactivation is not something that Joe Bloggs could do in his garage. Also, the idea that banning replicas will prevent criminals from using them in muggings is just ridiculous, since their current owners are not listed anywhere and no criminal is going to take advantage of an amnesty in order to hand their replica in.
I don't know if you saw the recent Police and BBC lead smear campaign against the airgun manufacturer Brocock; but they libelled them in the national media by suggesting that Brocock air pistols are extremely easy to convert to functioning firearms and that this is often done by criminals. That was shown to be a blatant lie which was not picked up on by the media, or reported by them, and especially not by the BBC (who made such a big deal about it in the first place). The electronic media are deliberately spreading propaganda to aid the British government's childish anti-gun agenda. How sickening.
"Pointed sticks? What are you going to do when an assailant comes at you with....
...a bowl of raspberries?!"
The best one was a banana..
Then a candidate asked, "What if he has a bunch?"
Meega, nala Kweesta!
I saw an article on a UK, Scotland IIRC, Police website a few years ago that explained that pointed sticks were indeed illegal weapons, at least in that jurisdiction. I kid you not.
They interviewed a policeman who said how easy it is to cut a .22 rimfire rifle cartridge, (the pistol cartridge is illegal), down to fit the chambers of a Brocock air cartridge revolver. About how it would be necessary to put the round into a specially designed receiver tube, to take the force, keep the round central in the chamber etc. They didn't say anything about the difficulty in obtaining the ammunition, or the skill and facilities required to cut down the cartridges, reload them again, engineer receiver tubes and make any other necessary modifications to the revolver. I believe it is sometimes necessary to put in a new barrel. The funny thing is that after his explanation of how bullets for the gun have to be modified, along with the gun itself, the silly reporter just went out to the local sports shop and bought a Brocock air revolver and then said how awful it was that she had been abe to buy a gun capable of firing real bullets over the counter!
Reactivating replicas and deactivated firearms is more difficult. If the criminals can get illegal pistol ammunition, to fire, then for the same money they spent on a replica and its reactivation they could just as easily get an illegal firearm from the black market. In all variations the .22 rimfire remains a relatively low-powered and low-pressured round, so its not the kind of round a gangster would use if they had a choice. Also, what self-respecting Yardie is going to carry a converted .22 calibre air revolver? They'd far rather carry an Uzi, or a 9mm Beretta, or a .44 Magnum, or a Browning L9A1, or whatever.
In fact, reactivated or converted guns make up only about 10% of the weapons seized by the Police, and they are the least dangerous guns out there (from the victims point of view) - how many blow up in the perp's hand? The government has no way to stop the other 90%, so its trying to show how tough on crime it is by targeting one of the sources of the 10%. The problem is the criminals will still get replacement guns from somewhere and the government will just be bankrupting British airgun manufacturers and importers.
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