Tragedy and mates

[Artie]

I just wanted to lend my moral support to our UK mates in the wake of the tragedy you are currently dealing with.

Words just dont express it well enough.

We are thinking of you all.

Rob T

[andyf]

Thanks, Artie.

By all accounts from neighbours in the small community where he lived, the man never showed any sign of oddness. It is hard to comprehend how someone can suddenly flip and drive around blasting away with a shotgun at everyone within range.

I suppose we will be hearing a lot from our gun control lobby during the next few weeks. It will be lost on them that, if he had no shotgun, he would probably have started running people down with his car instead.

Andy

[boatmadman]

Latest I heard was he had held a firearms licence for many years, and used a rifle and shotgun.

It has also been suggested that a family feud over an inheritance kicked it off, he killed his twin brother and solicitor amongst others.

Ian

[doubleboost]

Thanks
Artie
It is imposible to legistate against some one in that state of mind
The anti gun lobby will have a field day over this
John

[ieezitin]

Being from the US I am not quite sure what happened over there as shootings are an everyday occurrence over here and shamefully it’s not news, but can someone please explain in detail what gun rights British people have?.

And what since we have a world wide audience, what rights do they have?.


Thank you.             Anthony.

[JimM]

Hi Anthony

This is going a bit off topic but as the thread is quiet hopefully nobody will mind.

I'm not a gun owner myself, so the following is just what I've picked up but the way I understand it is that

1. Private ownership of handguns is totally bannd (this is a direct repurcussion of the Dunblane tradegdy that took place in the UK a number of years back)
2. Ownership of a shotgun requires a Shotgun Licence
3. Ownership of a rifle requires a Firearms licence

Not sure of what the difference is between 2 & 3 but would imagine the shotgun licence would be the easier to obtain as it would be aimed to include farmers, game (ie bird) hunters and clay pigeon shooters.

From reading the papers today I can tell you that anyone who has served over 3 years in prison is automatically disqualified from holding a licence, those that have served 3 months to 3 years have to wait a mandatory period after their release before holding a licence and those serving up to 3 months are flagged as 'discretionary' but not prohibited from holding a licence. (As an aside Derrick Bird who committed this autrocity had served prison time but was under the 3 months limit)

A licence last for 5 years, the home office guidelines suggest that an application should be supported by a home visit before being granted but this is not compulsory. The guidelines also specifically state that although access to an applicants medical records is available this shouln't be done as routine and the option only exercised if the specific case justifies it - perhaps something that will change going forwards !

Overall, the UK has some fairly stringent gun laws and although it makes no odds to me directly I do hope that the government don't take a knee jerk reaction and ban guns outright. It doesn't seem fair that one disturbed individual's actions should affect the 99.9% of responsible gun owners - having said that I'm not sure I'd be so open minded if it was a member of my family that had been killed in the recent shootings.

Hope the info is of some interest

Regards

Jim