Ok.
Guns are legal in the UK via the bill of rights (1691) BUT:
They are massively over-regulated and CONtrolled by the cops via statutes.
The rot set in after WW2 when in 1968 it became illegal to own a firearm with self-defence as a reason on the license.
Then in 1986-7 a lunatic went on a spree killing with an arms-imported AKM rifle and killed a bunch of people in Hungerford.
So all of a sudden the big government banned long-arm Repeating Rifles of above .22 calibre.
BUT this also meant the start of the big police state intruding into gun-owners lives.
Random visits, being put on a register. Increase in firearms license fee's.
Then in 1996, in very dubious circumstances, a child-molester (who was REFUSED a license but a labour MP over-ruled the refusal) shot a bunch of kids in a school.
THIS resulted in all handguns being outlawed.
Gun-owners having to register at a gun-club AND attend it (ie by firing a weapon down range).
The police in-charge of granting a firearms license are deliberately chosen from those who will be biased, not interested in firearms and against gun-owners and will do anything in their power to forbid a license.
You can't store a gun and it's ammo together. So if an intruder busts in your weapon is (technically useless)
A rifle can only be fired at State-designated ranges or 'recognised' private land (a shotgun can though)
So basically the rules that Obama is trying to get done with firearms are carbon copy's of the ones in the UK.
The reason for all these bs laws in the UK (besides the 2 spree killers?
No-one kicked up a fuss, the shotgun owners (typically rich landowners) didn't bat and eyelid as they saw handguns and rifles as separate entities.
The nanny-state mentality and the baby-boomers were having too much fun to worry about a few 'minor' laws sneaked in.
The UK doesn't have a NRA (in my opinion) that shows its teeth to the government and says 'No we're owning them without strings' and there is no such thing as a GOE (gun owners of england) because the cops threaten to revoke a firearms license if you 'publicise' gun ownership!
This is unofficial but the cops use it as a lever of control so they can reject a license.
That's right I've been to gun clubs where I made a really serious effort to 'get the word out' but no-one would listen.
Everyone was like 'Shhh, don't take pictures of us firing the guns. If word gets out we'll be in trouble from the local firearms cop.'
It's really pathetic in a way. They want to hold onto whatever rights they have left rather than laying it on the line and making a stand!
Getting a firearms license.
Imagine a hundred hoops in front of you and you get the layout....
To even be considered for firearms ownership you have to install a gun-cabinet which must resist sustained attack for 20 minutes.
Not have a criminal record.
Then you have to be a member of gun club. Get two referees (who aren't family) to make a declaration you are ok.
Do six months membership (3 months if you are ex-forces).
Then, assuming you aren't a Michael Ryan-type, you get 2 of the existing members to recommend you for a firearms license.
You put down what guns you want on the application. You have to put down a reason.
Legal ones include:
Collector
Vermin control
Target Shooting
Anything bolt-action is ok. They haven't banned them. So lee-enfields, hunting rifles, lever-actions and even barrett bolt actions are ok.
.22 calibre, single-action sub-machine guns are allowed. But they have a longish barrel to them.
Pistols are banned unless they have this bit of metal extension on the back end and on the barrel taking it up to about 3 feet in length. A 44 magnum with a bracer section on the back end means you don't need an extension on the front for example.
Now an inspecting cop can turn around and say 'Your gun cabinet is not ok'. Which means you've just wasted time, money and effort in the entire process. Without police approval for your storage at home you've just been sunk and cannot own a firearm.
I've seen many keen folk who want to get in on owning a firearm and all of sudden once it dawns on them what a byzantine and complicated process it is walk out of the door.
It's been engineered deliberatly to keep gun owners low and dis-arm the public to 'controllable' numbers.
This is the nightmare that Obama wants to introduce into the US. He'll do it in baby-steps, just like the UK has!
Watch for the thin end of the wedge people, cause it gets a whole lot more thicker...
