Confederate
Member
Okay, the United Kingdom is now getting really serious in its drive to stop handgun violence! First it announced that it was going to register the guns -- not ban them, mind you -- just register them...like cars. Then once they registered them, they began banning the types most used by criminals. Then, little by little, they just...well...banned them.
Now they're getting really serious. They've decided to try to ban deactivated guns -- guns people pay hundreds of dollars for and just show them to their friends and collect them. The reason? Some people can, with considerable work, reactivate them so that they fire.
According to an article in the U.K. Telegraph, "The Home Office will outline five options designed to crack down on non-firing guns, which can be illegally adapted by black market armourers so that they can once again fire bullets. Police believe that use of re-activated guns is growing and that official statistics fail to show the full scale of the problem."
Statistics are great, aren't they?
It's sad that people have to pay as much as we do for guns that work, but now even they may be banned.
"The proposals will face strong opposition from legitimate collectors, some of whom have spent many thousands of pounds on their hobby, who say that changing the regulations will penalise the law-abiding but have no effect on criminals." My, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was quoted as saying, "Tackling gun crime is key to making people feel safer and more secure in their communities. We already have the tightest controls in Europe but there is more we can do to remove the threat of gun crime." There's always more government can do, can't it? In the United States the...ummm...states are trying to reassert themselves from federal domination, but there are a number of senators and congressmen who are trying to nullify state laws that let people carry guns. And these people are all for "common sense" measures like...well...registration of guns. What's wrong with that? We register cars, don't we?
Only I can't think of any countries that have subsequently banned cars, can you? But they're clear on one thing: they're not trying to take our guns away from us. That's nut talk. Just because the U.K. did it...and South Africa...and Rhodesi...er...Zimbabwe...and Canada...and Australia...and (well, you get the picture).
The sad thing is that now they're going after more "common sense" proposals, like banning deactivated guns. This once-free people are now spending big bucks, or pounds, buying cool guns that they can show their friends. They watch a movie like Dirty Harry and, afterwards, while tea is being served, George goes to the safe and a few moments later comes out with a beautifully preserved "deactivated" S&W Model 29 that he can pass around. And then, after everyone's looked at it, and oooohed and aaaahed over it, George proudly wipes it down with an oily rag and returns it to the safe. Only this time, Secretary Smith will be waiting to collect it...for the common good, mind you!
This deactivated Walther PPK in "Good" condition
is going for £600.
And this deactivated S&W 686 has a chromed hammer and
trigger, and no lock! It cost about a thousand U.S. $$$.
S&W 28 - Highway Patrolman. Imagine. A real .357 magnum!
We Americans sometimes take our liberties for granted. And when we hear that the President of the NRA and Executive V.P. of the legislative part of the NRA both make "six-figure" salaries and spend our money like drunken sailors, we sometimes don't want to contribute. But like 'em or not, the NRA has made a huge difference when it comes to protecting those liberties.
It's sad that George's S&W 29 only goes "click" when he pulls the trigger, and it's sad that people elect corrupt morons like Secretary Smith. It's almost a surety that unless we educate our children and monitor what they're being taught, that our grandchildren may only have our deactivated guns when we're dead and buried.
.
Now they're getting really serious. They've decided to try to ban deactivated guns -- guns people pay hundreds of dollars for and just show them to their friends and collect them. The reason? Some people can, with considerable work, reactivate them so that they fire.
According to an article in the U.K. Telegraph, "The Home Office will outline five options designed to crack down on non-firing guns, which can be illegally adapted by black market armourers so that they can once again fire bullets. Police believe that use of re-activated guns is growing and that official statistics fail to show the full scale of the problem."
Statistics are great, aren't they?
It's sad that people have to pay as much as we do for guns that work, but now even they may be banned.
"The proposals will face strong opposition from legitimate collectors, some of whom have spent many thousands of pounds on their hobby, who say that changing the regulations will penalise the law-abiding but have no effect on criminals." My, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was quoted as saying, "Tackling gun crime is key to making people feel safer and more secure in their communities. We already have the tightest controls in Europe but there is more we can do to remove the threat of gun crime." There's always more government can do, can't it? In the United States the...ummm...states are trying to reassert themselves from federal domination, but there are a number of senators and congressmen who are trying to nullify state laws that let people carry guns. And these people are all for "common sense" measures like...well...registration of guns. What's wrong with that? We register cars, don't we?
Only I can't think of any countries that have subsequently banned cars, can you? But they're clear on one thing: they're not trying to take our guns away from us. That's nut talk. Just because the U.K. did it...and South Africa...and Rhodesi...er...Zimbabwe...and Canada...and Australia...and (well, you get the picture).
The sad thing is that now they're going after more "common sense" proposals, like banning deactivated guns. This once-free people are now spending big bucks, or pounds, buying cool guns that they can show their friends. They watch a movie like Dirty Harry and, afterwards, while tea is being served, George goes to the safe and a few moments later comes out with a beautifully preserved "deactivated" S&W Model 29 that he can pass around. And then, after everyone's looked at it, and oooohed and aaaahed over it, George proudly wipes it down with an oily rag and returns it to the safe. Only this time, Secretary Smith will be waiting to collect it...for the common good, mind you!
This deactivated Walther PPK in "Good" condition
is going for £600.
And this deactivated S&W 686 has a chromed hammer and
trigger, and no lock! It cost about a thousand U.S. $$$.
S&W 28 - Highway Patrolman. Imagine. A real .357 magnum!
We Americans sometimes take our liberties for granted. And when we hear that the President of the NRA and Executive V.P. of the legislative part of the NRA both make "six-figure" salaries and spend our money like drunken sailors, we sometimes don't want to contribute. But like 'em or not, the NRA has made a huge difference when it comes to protecting those liberties.
It's sad that George's S&W 29 only goes "click" when he pulls the trigger, and it's sad that people elect corrupt morons like Secretary Smith. It's almost a surety that unless we educate our children and monitor what they're being taught, that our grandchildren may only have our deactivated guns when we're dead and buried.
.
Based on trends that I'm seeing, however, what I believe is that we were once the last hope of freedom and will be that again someday, if we can save ourselves from our own rulers, that is.
