An apocryphal tale.
Two neighbours having a rammy (loud discussion, loads of argy bargy) wife of No2 comes out to see what's happening. Son of No1 goes running into his Mum who is making dinner and tells her that Mr and Mrs 2 are ganging up on Dad. Without stopping to think about it Mrs1 goes running out with the potato knife still in her hand. Mrs 2 sees the knife and starts screaming blue murder. In jumps Mr 3 who tells Mrs2 to stop being such a (insert suitable expletives) stupid eejit. Mrs 3, and Son3 all put in their tuppence ha'penny worth about Mrs1 being silly too. Mrs 1 rounds on Mrs and Son3 and tells them to *expletive out of it, it's none of their damned business, it's only a paring knife! Mrs 4 decides to take matters into her own hands, phones the police and then tries to take the knife from Mrs1.....and gets her hand sliced for her stupidity
Mr4 starts ranting and then the police arrive.
This happens; it really does. Now, supposing
any of those otherwise rational people had a gun to hand and decided that they were going to restore order; the first thing someone else is going to do is look for their gun too, since that's their right to bear arms and threatened people threaten back.
Santaman2000 we know guns don't kill people unless someone's holding it, but the reality is that we had a grand total, and that includes airguns simply found in situ, of 365 firearms crimes in an
entire year, in the
entire nation.
Half of those were airguns, which aren't presently licenced.
That's it.
The entire thing.
It's not us who are over reacting.
America can keep it guns and it's adoration of them over their children the other side of the Atlantic. We don't want to live in the 'Wild West'.
We do wish to live here, in peace and security.
Whether licencing airguns is the way forward or not, I don't know.
I do know that for the majority,
it won't matter a damn.
For those to whom is does matter, and I am not anti gun ownership, I am very much anti no reason and demanding rights and no responsibilities, I really hope the system is simplified, that it is even handed right across the country, that it is enacted responsibly.
The apocraphyl tale happened. I live in a lovely bit of the world, but our wee towns are the murder capital of Europe. Not by guns and firearms, but by knives.
We really don't need the excrement storm of guns in the mixture too. The UK's a nice place, millions of decent people, just there's an undercurrent that's not so civilized and it's in most of us.
I don't want to worry about whether the numpties sloshed out of their skulls on buckie and white lightning have airguns or not. It's bad enough that the monks refuse to bottle with plastic
It's quite astonishing just how much mess a glass chib can make of a face. Guns don't kill people, but armed people kill people, your own society shows that.
Bringing airguns into line with firearms is really a non issue.
Back responsible ownership, push the simplification of ownership and the reasons for ownership, make it clear, explain it, have everyone on the same page, and for heavens sake teach responsible use. Encourage clubs, encourage education, encourage sport and understanding.
Otherwise, this opprobium agin guns will only get worse with every single incident.
Gun owners can't stand outside society demanding changes; change has to happen with the majority in agreement.
Toddy
From Wiki
"A quarter of robberies of commercial premises in the U.S. are committed with guns. Fatalities are three times as likely in robberies committed with guns than where other, or no, weapons are used, with similar patterns in cases of family violence.]Criminologist Philip J. Cook hypothesized that if guns were less available, criminals might commit the same crime, but with less-lethal weapons. He finds that the level of gun ownership in the 50 largest U.S. cities correlates with the rate of robberies committed with guns, but not with overall robbery rates. A significant number of homicides are the consequence of an unintended escalation of another crime in which firearms are present, with no initial intent to kill. "