alick said:
Fully automatic weapons are classed as section 5 and in practice are never approved for civilian ownership
And rightly so, IMO! Sorry to be a 'spoilsport', but why the hell would anyone ever want/need a fully automatic weapon - other than to, say, kill people or simply to give themselves a h**d on?!
That said, having grown up in Hereford, I have experience of firing shotguns, garden guns (4-10s), air rifles, and even an old Bren Gun years ago on a firing range ... and I can see very clear 'civilian' uses for all of them (apart from the Bren, perhaps!).
As for licensing, I'm no expert (you may have guessed!), but I believe that Canada has similar legislation to the US - maybe even tougher legislation - yet the number of murders carried out using a firearm is only a fraction of that in the US, even though there is an equivalent prevalance of gun ownership (per head at least). Various authors (including Michael Moore) put this down to a difference in 'gun culture' - ie. the way people perceive guns as tools, rather than toys. I think this is why gun crime is escalating in the UK and elsewhere - there is a culture of illegal gun ownership based on kudos, lifestyle, fashion, etc, etc - hence, you could argue that we don't want to encourage this culture by relaxing legislation and sending out the wrong message - and that we also need a robust legal system that can come down hard on people carrying or supplying illegal firearms. Just makes good sense to me.
Though I appreciate that a minority of gun enthusiasts would rather the opposite - and so would I in an ideal world. Bear in mind you are the responsible ones, and I would hazard a guess that you don't live in 'problematic' inner city areas, when gun crime is sometimes a little too close for comfort (and yes, it is very much a 'townie' problem).
That said, the way we seem to be following in the in footsteps of the USA - eg. blame culture and law suits, eating ourselves silly - it won't be long before we'll all be packin' a piece at home, just in case some dirty commie or drugged-up rapist sets foot on our property. Only kidding ... right?
Sorry - seem to be shooting off all over the place here! (excuse the pun).
G :?:
PS: don't mean to deliberately offend any of our American comrades. Apologies if I've pi**ed anyone off.