Comments by "Roger Smith" (@rogersmith8339) on "Why is it that in Britain the ownership of firearms is limited to dangerous criminals?" video.

@roberttill3787 You would almost certainly, except in very specific circumstances!
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The laws regarding what constitutes a weapon in the UK are very interesting - one refers to "bladed articles" - now a screw drive has a blade and makes a pretty good weapon (be careful if you have been working on your car and leave your tool box in it!) A tenon saw or a coping / fret saw has a blade, so is that a weapon? What about the staff (longish thickish stick) I carry when walking in rough terrain? Or a 1m length of 10 mm bore aluminium pipe?
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@albanan1 Was he from the Isle Of Wight or the southern states of the USA?
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You could quite legally carry a knife appropriate to your foraging, just like a fisherman or a yachtsman can do for their sports. My stalking "tool kit" includes various equipment required for the gralloch and to remove small branches from round high seats etc.
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@Falconlibrary There is a balance to be drawn, and a direct comparison is misleading. Switzerland has a higher per household ownership of military firearms but is quite safe. The only mass shootings in the UK have been carried out by people who should not have had the guns but were either allowed them due to incompetence, or in the case of Dunblane, but corruption (also likely in the Hungerford case as it happens). You also have to remember that up until recently our population was not all descended from criminals, asylum seekers & economic migrants!
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Bet I know where / who you got your paper punching sticker from! Mine came on the box of my 9 1/2" S&W .22! I lost all my "toys" but the biggest annoyance was the limited edition 625 I won in the Pistol AD raffle - it was probably one of my favourite ever guns, it turned out, that being of significant historic interest (ie limited edition) I could have still owned it although the use would be heavily restricted and storage very costly.
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I think there is an old Russian saying that goes along the lines of "A man with a stick can take the sword from a man with a sword, a man with a sword can take the gun from a man with a gun".
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Have you ever seen some of the things that used to be in the Enfield (small arms) collection? - Some of those improvised guns from various conflicts were very scary!
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@miketurner3964 If you ever get a chance do go.
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It is quite interesting that you mention the Hungerford incident. Mr Ryan used to shoot at a range that was also popular with some of the local police, now there is a thing? The story went that the local armed police lot were shooting/ practicing at a nearby range but didn't attend immediately (as they could have) but went back to base first.
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@wreython Very sadly, at Hungerford, Dunblane and more recently in Plymouth, the police didn't come out smelling of roses! With Ryan, it is debatable whether it was incompetence or corruption, with Hamilton it was very much corruption (hence the difficulty getting the investigation details made public). In Plymouth, it seems to be appalling incompetence, but I wonder if it might have not been such a "mistake" as if it were, heads should have rolled!
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@miketurner3964 I think you sum up the current state of affairs perfectly in your last sentence. There are some that cry "We need a revolution" but everyone knows what that ends up with. Personally, I think population density has something to do with the situation and certainly some of it is down to the "Me" attitude / generation. I know times will be very hard for a good many people with the current economic situation, but I wonder if we might all come out the other side better for it? The appalling greed and waste that has dominated the last 20 years or so simply cannot go on without a negative effect.
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@BusbyTreeSurgery Beyond fishy, it was the funny handshakes brigade!
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@douglas_gemini In that part of the world there is an extensive arms manufacturing "cottage" industry. They will make you pretty much any gun you want and to the quality you are prepared to pay for. AK's were the stock in trade of course, but I recall a magazine article from the 80's where they showed a nice side by side rifle in 7.62 x 39. Now that would be a beautiful rifle for the smaller UK deer species!
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@miketurner3964 When you think of the so called "last ditch" defences / organisations from WW2, I bet there are quite a lot of things hidden away. One of my uncles had an innocent looking house on a fairly "posh" estate that he discovered was a last ditch stronghold. The garage was massively reinforced and the classic "arrow slot" features so common in the gables of that style of house provided a good strategic view of the main road. The real giveaway though was the quantity of wartime 9mm ammo found in the loft that got handed in to the local police.
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@rabmcnair4488 The big issue as someone else points out is the "reasonable force" part. That needs to be redefined to something along the lines of "what you determine to be reasonable force in the circumstances" or possibly" a jury of your peers would think to be reasonable" but it would have to be a genuine jury of your peers in terms of demographics etc.
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@rabmcnair4488 It still seems to be a little open to interpretation which means lawyers will fight over it, specially when it comes to the use of lethal force if that is what the defendant considers to be what they deem to be reasonable.
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It was actually Winston Churchill, back in WW1 that championed marksmanship of the masses with the promotion of "miniature rifle ranges / clubs", the laws relating to which have remained the same since. Most curiously, the old definition of miniature rifle would allow ownership of some pretty serious kit, up to and including AR15s and the like, but for the modern interpretation being taken as the legal stance.
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At one time, a crime of passion was not treated as a crime if I recall correctly.
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That does not sound very French to me? I have seen their cops remove a yob from a bar and he didn't come back!
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@MrEdrftgyuji Pretend you are from a minority group and that they are not and called you rude names?
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Anyone who is interested in this topic and is not familiar with the YouTube channel English Shooting should pay it a visit. Recently he was talking about 3D printed guns.
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When the even stricter controls came out post Dunblane, everyone who actually knew what they were talking about said it would do nothing to armed crime. I attended what at the time was supposed to be the largest ever protest march in London about this. It never made the news that night or subsequent nights - in fact, there was actually no news on BBC or ITV that evening!
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One of the worst things about Dunblane (other than the tragic loss of life & the fact it revealed how corrupt the Masons are) was the timing of it. It happened shortly before a general election and it ended up with both major parties trying to out do each other (a pissing competition) regarding how they were "going to make the British public safer".
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@romeric69 Reminds me ot the certified true story of the local armed police officer who shot himself in the leg, showing off how good he was!
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@paulsayers580 Very true - many cops are shot with their own guns out there!
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@xmfclick I know some funny stories about these armed & trained officers! The other thing is that some of the equipment they are issued with is not really correct for the purpose, but it does look macho & cool!
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@BillSikes. Unless they are smooth bored weapons which can be pistols but never rifles. Then there is the situation regarding barrelled weapons over a certain bore size!
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@johnbrereton5229 So it is true - he commissions crimes?
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@BillSikes. Populations - so many of the JOcks have moved to a much nicer country - even my Mrs!
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@BillSikes. But why is a pistol or rifle designed purely for target shooting called a weapon?
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Ben Gunn That was one of the daft things that kept being bandied about after Hungerford - calling his AK47 and I believe an M1 high powered! Even an SA80 / AR15 in standard calibre are not high powered, and in fact are technically miniature rifles in accordance to the law up until very recently at least.
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@catbreath007 Neat bleach in your squirty de-icer bottle - just saying?
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Ben Gunn Only two of mine come close to being high powered, and then not under the legal description of such, under the rules governing rifle ranges.
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@neilmccall5311 Why on earth do you have to bring "right" or "left" into the conversation? The reason the American police shoot quite a few people is that lots of them get shot if they don't shoot first. Then of course there was the "innocent " guy in London who got popped during what the Yanks would call a traffic stop.
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@formicapple2 When I first saw that 625 I was trying to work out how I could afford it I so wanted it! Mind you, I have a rather weird "gift" with raffles every now and then, winning the prize I want far more frequently than I should if it was random.
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