Air pistols & guns. Time for them to be licensed?

[DaFoot]

No for me.

 

High powered air weapons are already subject to control by licensing. By all means bring the license power threshold down, but don't kill plinking (back garden tin can/target shooting) as a hobby with an outright ban.

 

There are plenty of other items out there that are dangerous in the wrong hands, it is the person not the weapon.

 

Punish wrong-doers severely, but don't take away another perfectly legit hobby away for no good reason.

[daz1976]

i am a keen shooter and use a rifle most days during the hunting season,i dont think they should be licensed i think everyone who buys a rifle should maybe made to show they have insurance by basc or someone simlar and maybe able to prove they have permission by a land owner to shoot

licensing thoe is going to make people who are sensible pay and the people who arnt are still going to get their hands on them without licences

[Dungbeetle]

Whoever this is, now give Halibut back his computer and leave his house, immediaty

My sides are hurting after that one!

[Dungbeetle]

as i see it, effectively banning people from using them apart from clubs etc would make it easier to spot traoublemakers, if your seen with an air pistol AT ALL your illegal.

But that's already the case. You cannot have an airgun (or air rifle, shotgun, firearm et al) visible in public without good reason, or you’re breaking the law to start with. They can only be used on premises or land on which you have written permission, and you can only have them with you in transit - covered and if possible secured in the boot of a car - if you have good reason to be travelling with them.

Again, there are already laws in place which mean that people can't just be seen out and about with air guns - so what's the point in introducing another law for chavs to ignore?

 

on your last point, its gotta make you more of a crack shot than not ever using a gun at all

But that doesn't make the blindest bit of difference to illegal gun crime - drug dealers, yardies and gangsters just point and spray, and some poor bugger gets shot, possibly the one they were aiming at. None of them are 'crack shots' anyway and that line of debate is irrelevant to whether air pistols should be legal, until we have a case of a skilled sniper terrorising a British city, and that’s never happened.

[AliPasha]

I admit it, I shoot airguns! Much like watercolour painting, or golf, or archery, it requires concentration and mental discipline and a certain natural ability (I don't have much of the latter but that does not overly spoil my enjoyment). I don't shoot living things like rabbits and other officially designated pests, but I know people who do both for a living, or to eat or for sport. I do not find them, morally lacking. Why? Because I know they act in a socially responsible manner and within the law.

 

If people have a moral problem with guns then thats the way it is and we shall never agree. Though as pointed out here its the user not the thing which is at fault. Its been well stated above that air guns are already subject to strict legislation, its time that that legislation was properly enforced by the authorities.

 

Why do I disagree with licensing, because it is (as well pointed out above) a nonesense in terms of actual control, because it is inefficient, because it is once again the State regulating the citizen in the name of 'fairness' and 'decency' while persuing its own amoral agendas. If a matter causes the remotest problem politicians come up with the great idea of licensing, bureaucratic meddling and inevitably attendant taxes and charges.

 

Gun crime is shocking indeed, air gun crime is a tiny fraction of the total. 'One is too many' or 'never again' I hear people say, indeed I agree, anyone remember poor Maria Colwell, abused and murdered at an innocent age in the 1970s? That one was a 'never again' situation... so was Dunblane... We are hypocrites to use this approach again and again as a panacea to salve our own consiences to avoid tacking the real problems at the root of our society.

 

Sorry for the rant

[Dungbeetle]

So what is the problem with needing a license if you're a responsible user?

In itself, needing a license is not a problem, but will the already responsible user, who will happily comply and obtain a license, become any safer than he was before?

 

And will the thug who was shooting cats on his council estate, and does not bother to get a license, become any safer than he was before.

 

The first example was, and still would be, acting legally.

 

The latter example was, and still would be, acting illegally. With or without license he’d be in trouble if caught slotting cats, and no more likely to be reported as I’m sure the cat owners would report him with equal haste whether or not he required a license.

 

I just fail to see what the licensing system would achieve.

 

If you ask the firearms licensing staff of South Yorkshire Police whether having details of all the county’s licensed firearm certificate holders helps them to solve gun crime, we both know what the answer will be.

[Phanerothyme]

seeeeeeeee just had a look at the members list and 6 of you pro airgunners joined today

now your not telling me thats purely coincidental

 

ones even called proudairgun lol

 

pro airgunners?

 

thought all airgunners were 12 year old chavs shooting cats and babies?

 

What is a "pro-airgunner" then Mel? And why do you think they feel so strongly about the prospect of more heavily licenced, individually licenced air weapons? Strongly enough to take the time to join the forum and post cogent, well argued points?

 

You've not managed to muster a single point in defence of additional air weapon licencing or counter one against it. I'm kinda hoping you would at some point.

[Dungbeetle]

Errrrr.......no, actually! ( And I do find it worrying to be agreeing with Dungbeetle again - maybe I'm drifting to the right.....God, no anything but that....)

That just won't do - if you're drifting to the right I'll have to start sellng Socialist Worker.

I very much agree with your line on ths thread, as it happens.

[melthebell]

pro airgunners?

 

thought all airgunners were 12 year old chavs shooting cats and babies?

 

What is a "pro-airgunner" then Mel? And why do you think they feel so strongly about the prospect of more heavily licenced, individually licenced air weapons? Strongly enough to take the time to join the forum and post cogent, well argued points?

 

You've not managed to counter or muster a single point in defence of additional air weapon licencing. I'm kinda hoping you would at some point.

people in favour of air guns / people against more legislation

 

and ali pasha makes 7

 

funny that 7 people against airgun licenses all join on the same day??? its ok people its only a bit of fun we cant really ban airguns, no need to get all yer little friends to join and vote

[AliPasha]

If someone wanted to ban watercolour painting (and it has been done in various ways in various countries) I would reply with a similar passion. This is a real and live issue that deserves discussion, but you can't complain if those directly involved respond and show the initiative that the vast majority of the British public seemingly don't have.