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

[evildrneil]

As an ex shooter (rifle, pistol and shotgun) oh and archer I think they should be licensed. I never saw the need for banning guns but I don't see the need for anyone to have them without somewhere to shoot them be it a club / farmland or whatever. If you can't show that you have somewhere safe to use a firearm (including an air weapon) then you shouldn't really have one.

[helibish]

i strongly agree that all guns should be licenced and indeed all people wanting a gun should have to go through a CRB check, anyone with a criminal record should be refused no matter what!

i also think that people have just jumped on the forum band wagon to disguss this with only one interest and thats their self.

after recent incidents it is now time to tighten up on all gun laws.

[TimeTravelle]

i strongly agree that all guns should be licenced and indeed all people wanting a gun should have to go through a CRB check, anyone with a criminal record should be refused no matter what!

i also think that people have just jumped on the forum band wagon to disguss this with only one interest and thats their self.

after recent incidents it is now time to tighten up on all gun laws.

 

But what was done was already illegal and it is illegal for someone of that age to own a gun ... how can you tighten something that is already illegal? Perhaps make it Very Illegal?

[helibish]

your sarcasum disgusts me. it is not a topic that we should joke about. i supose you have a gun, rather dangerous in the wrong hands. grow up!!!

[TimeTravelle]

your sarcasum disgusts me. it is not a topic that we should joke about. i supose you have a gun, rather dangerous in the wrong hands. grow up!!!

 

Explain to me how tighter legislation would have prevented this latest tragedy.

[Rigel]

I don't see the need for anyone to have them without somewhere to shoot them be it a club / farmland or whatever. If you can't show that you have somewhere safe to use a firearm (including an air weapon) then you shouldn't really have one.

 

Okay, so let’s start a petition to licence golf clubs, especially those dangerous irons – they could do a lot of damage to someone’s cranium. The same analogy using your logic holds true: if you’re not a member of a golf club and therefore you can’t show that you have somewhere safe to use one, then you shouldn’t really have one, let alone a full set.

 

Can’t afford the annual membership at your local golf and country club? Tough. Don’t go often enough to warrant spending that amount of money every year? Tough: at least lives will be saved.

 

And why should anyone need a car with an engine capacity larger than 1 litre? After all, a car is only useful to get one from A to B: anything larger will surely only tempt drivers to exceed the speed limit and risk injuring or killing other people? Do you want to own a Porsche? Then prove you need one by providing a racing licence prior to purchase.

 

See where this thin end of the wedge is leading? It’s all about freedom of choice, and doing what you enjoy doing, for goodness’ sake.

 

Please don’t resort to sophistry: put forward a compelling argument why airguns should be licensed: I’d dearly love to hear one.

 

Helibish: You are quite obviously clueless on the subject matter at hand. I invite you to read and comprehend your own sig in the context of this debate, or did you mean to type “punish the breed not the deed?”

[metalman]

Well I haven't joined today, and I've got an air gun. I've had it since I was about 8 or 9, when it was given to my dad. I used to shoot at targets or tin cans, never anything living. I haven't used it for years but now Melthebell and others are proposing to turn me into a criminal for just possessing it. Probably there are hundreds of thousands of others just like me, and strangely enough it hasn't turned us all into homicidal maniacs. So I'm against the licensing of air guns as unnecessary too.

 

It's like most other things discussed on this thread: in the right hands they're all perfectly safe but in the wrong hands they aren't. It's the hands that are the problem, not the airguns.

[badgerbadger]

Good morning folks.

 

As I too am new here, may I introduce myself first?

 

I heard about this discussion at my gun club yesterday and would like to take part.

Shooting at a club just south of Sheffield, and working at the Hallamshire, Childrens and Northern General hospitals from time to time, are my (tenuous)connections with the city.

 

I am a Marshal, and have been a Deputy Chief Safety Marshal for a national series of target shooting events.

 

If my posts are considered to be trolling, I trust that the site admins would take whatever action they feel appropriate.

 

Now the post.

 

The experience with handguns has unfortunately proven that banning something does not stop it being used to commit crime.

 

The points raised earlier by Rigel in post 126, are pertinent, and yet unanswered. as is TimeTraveller's post 133.

While this may be seen as sarcasm, it is a frequently discussed question. If something is already banned, then how can you tghten the laws regarding its misuse?

 

May I offer a solution?

 

We all heard Mr Blair's assertion that all people with illegal firearms be sentenced to five years in prison.

Please ask your MP the following question.

"How many people, convicted of firearms misuse have been sentenced to five years imprisonment?"

He will either answer none, or no figures available.

Then ask "Why?"

 

Unless we enforce the Laws we have, what use are new ones?

 

PS I have not voted in your poll.

[cinstone]

Good morning everyone.

 

daz1976;- "By all means bring the license power threshold down". I agree with all the rest of your post, but not this bit. There are many folk who shoot in competitions with relatively long distances for air rifles, upto 55m/yards in some area's of the sport. How low would you propose to drop this "threshold"? I wouldn't like to shoot at a target 55m/yards away with, e.g, 6lb.ft or 3lb.ft air rifles. I doubt it would make it to the target, let alone be accurate.

Then there is the "humane" point of view. There are many people who do a great service for farmers in keeping down the amount of vermin on farmland that destroy crops & spread desease. This they do for free in the majority of cases, and before we get someone having a go about killing animals, sometimes it is not practical to use poisons, such as rat poison. If poison is laid out for rats, it is also possible for other animals to digest it, for example, the humble pet cat. Anyway, the humane point is this. The 12lb.ft limit was imposed many, many years ago & is generally deemed the lowest it could be whilst still being humane. Nobody wants wounded animals or vermin to go crawling off in pain. It may also be impractical to use another form of gun in any given situation, such as if there was a rat infestation in a barn. Using a .22" rimfire or 17HMR rifle in this situation would be potentialy life threatening to 1, the shooter & 2, anyone the otherside of the wall!

 

melthbell;-

All we are doing is fighting for our sport.

 

evildrneil;-

"As an ex shooter (rifle, pistol and shotgun) oh and archer I think they should be licensed. I never saw the need for banning guns but I don't see the need for anyone to have them without somewhere to shoot them be it a club / farmland or whatever. If you can't show that you have somewhere safe to use a firearm (including an air weapon) then you shouldn't really have one."

At present, you can use an air gun on your own property, as long as it is safe & you abide by the rules & laws that are in use at the moment. One of the laws is that you must make sure that the pellet does not leave the boundary of your property & that you must not shoot within 50 feet of the center of a public highway. You can find out the laws in full on any police force website if you look in the firearms section. Then there are other things, which are really just common sence things, like ensuring you have a back stop sufficiant to do the job. As a former shooter of rifles, pistols & shotgun & archery, I would expect you to know this anyway.

 

A person who is a member of a target shooting club, or does HFT or FT competitions, has an air rifle. Let's say that it's sometime in the future & someone in government has changed the law & air guns air licenced. Now this responsible target/competition shooter is law abiding & goes ahead & licences his rifle, just so he can continue his sport. He, & many thousands of people in the same situation do likewise. Then, a month or so later, someone gets shot by a yob, criminal or hoody, using an unlicenced & therefore illegal air gun. Let's say this person has been blinded, or worse, so the government bans all guns, air, rimfire, centerfire & shot guns. The next month someone else gets injured or killed with the illegal use of a gun. A gun that has been banned, i.e. any gun.What do you do now? The banning of the guns has stopped responsible people using them. But it hasn't stopped criminals & the like using them. This is proved by the fact that since the ban on handguns after Dunblane, GUN CRIME INVOLVING HANDGUNS HAS INCREASED 60%!

 

May I point out that I am not a resident of Sheffield, but this is (a) a national issue, & (b) as the "w" "w" "w" states by default at the begunning of every website address, "World Wide Web", it's as public as it is possibly can be. Add to that that if someone wants to take my right away to shoot safely & responsibly within the laws as they stand at the moment, or even licence them, then I have the right to voice my own opinions. This goes for any argument/disccussion, whether it be shooting, as in this case, or anything else.

[cinstone]

Can we have a poll on whether cars should be banned please? My poll is based on the fact that some drivers drive irresponsibly, dangerously & have injured/killed innocent people by driving this way.