Police swoop on military gun collector as he drives to his mum's

[alikat]

Time to remember we all live in police states, and this is about control! No guns = you do what you're told. I seem to recall that gun crime exploded in the UK when private citizens had theirs confiscated, and I don't know whether they sorted out the compensation thing, as I had friends who had olympic .22 target pistols who were less than pleased at what the gov't was offering them. I had a friend in S London who had a Ford Escort that he never locked - his theft deterrent was spent rifle brass and shotgun shells on the back seat. He has a similar experience with the plod on the way home one night as the guy in the Telegraph article - except most of the local constabulary in cars were involved!! He was suitably impressed with the response, and the cops were less than impressed that posession of spent brass wasn't a capital crime (yet!!).

[Richie B]

Time to remember we all live in police states, and this is about control! No guns = you do what you're told. I seem to recall that gun crime exploded in the UK when private citizens had theirs confiscated, and I don't know whether they sorted out the compensation thing, as I had friends who had olympic .22 target pistols who were less than pleased at what the gov't was offering them. I had a friend in S London who had a Ford Escort that he never locked - his theft deterrent was spent rifle brass and shotgun shells on the back seat. He has a similar experience with the plod on the way home one night as the guy in the Telegraph article - except most of the local constabulary in cars were involved!! He was suitably impressed with the response, and the cops were less than impressed that posession of spent brass wasn't a capital crime (yet!!).

We do not live in a police state in the UK - I can't speak for California. You want to study your history before making such statements - Stasi, Securitate, Gestapo, SIDE, DINA and KGB spring to mind if you want to talk about "police states"

Gun crime did not "explode" following the post Hungerford and Dunblane legislation.

There is and never has been a high level of gun crime in the UK.

[Battery Command Post]

We do not live in a police state in the UK - I can't speak for California. You want to study your history before making such statements - Stasi, Securitate, Gestapo, SIDE, DINA and KGB spring to mind if you want to talk about "police states"

Gun crime did not "explode" following the post Hungerford and Dunblane legislation.

There is and never has been a high level of gun crime in the UK.

The UK is more of a Nanny State than a Police State.

Rob

[37Webbing]

Time to remember we all live in police states, and this is about control! No guns = you do what you're told. I seem to recall that gun crime exploded in the UK when private citizens had theirs confiscated, and I don't know whether they sorted out the compensation thing, as I had friends who had olympic .22 target pistols who were less than pleased at what the gov't was offering them. I had a friend in S London who had a Ford Escort that he never locked - his theft deterrent was spent rifle brass and shotgun shells on the back seat. He has a similar experience with the plod on the way home one night as the guy in the Telegraph article - except most of the local constabulary in cars were involved!! He was suitably impressed with the response, and the cops were less than impressed that posession of spent brass wasn't a capital crime (yet!!).

In Denmark it is illegal to own spent brass. (If you are not allowed to own a riffel / shotgun in that calibre) It is ridiculous since it is possible to find spent brass (5.56×45mm NATO and 9mm) in every forest in Denmark. The army doesn't bother to collect all the blanks and the live ammo they fire, and therefore it is possible that children and their parents are able to find large quantities of spent brass if they are taking a stroll in the forest.

[alikat]

"Gun crime did not "explode" following the post Hungerford and Dunblane legislation."

Sorry Richie, but you need to check your facts. In the 2 years following the 1997 Act gun crime rose 40% and then 50% to 2001 (I hear it has since dropped significantly though). I'd call that an explosion!

Did you know that the 1689 Bill of Rights "reestablished the liberty of Protestants to have arms for their defence within the rule of law"? The 'rule of law' however has been taken from the common law right to defend yourself and property if threatened to almost an outright prohibition on any such act.

[danno81]

It is so unfortunate that firearms are looked at in the UK as criminal versus the thuggery that is the real problem. It is similar in other places and the collectors of legitimate vintage firearms are far from what creates the criminal issues in society, and hopefully at somepoint, the voting population will force personal responsibility back on the politicians who have created such havoc on honest firearm owners. Certain places here in the states suffer similar outlooks from the politicians however with 270 million guns in private ownership here, they will have their hands full if political correctness tries to intervene in the lawful ownership of the weapons. I agree he should have kept the weapons out of sight, but what a bunch of garbage to have been treated in the manner he was.

[davejb]

The fact remains that gun crime is not that high here in the UK, and never has been and the Government figures stated are a means to an end, the problem we have is that some idiot runs amok and everyone suffers, yet you can still get a shotgun licence fairly easily and that was always the preferred weapon of choice among armed criminals here, therefore why wasnt the shotgun regulations drastically altered, perhaps it was the fact that most of the politicians come from large estates or farming communities, their weekend pleasures of grouse shooting or skeet shooting could have been affected, do you think that could have something to do with it?, when I served in the police as a firearms trained officer i think that in ten years we had approx 5 incidents relating to firearms, one of which was a toy gun,one was a blank firer and three were actual firing weapons one of which was a shotgun the other two , pistols, our reaction to shotguns were a great deal more hairly than pistols, and i speak from personal experience, having seen the top of a wheelie bin and the top portion of a fence disappear right above my head.If there was a preference i think you'd find that most cops would rather face a pistol than a shotgun aimed at them i know i did. Unfortunately no matter where you come from , guns will always be available to the criminal fraternity, so all these restrictions have had little effect except to punish the innocent law abiding owner of weapons who either collect or shoot for pleasure

[alikat]

Totally agree Dave. "never let a good crisis go to waste" . I wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of a shotgun round either - having worked in a bank most of my life, I have seen the damage in confined spaces too!

[Scout]

Silly bugger leaving them on the back seat of his car to be honest. Ok, they were partially covered up, but he should have known better, if only from the point of fact that his '£3,000 machine gun' could have been nicked !

This.

He was a lucky chap after all.

[Scout]

The fact remains that gun crime is not that high here in the UK, and never has been and the Government figures stated are a means to an end, the problem we have is that some idiot runs amok and everyone suffers, yet you can still get a shotgun licence fairly easily and that was always the preferred weapon of choice among armed criminals here, therefore why wasnt the shotgun regulations drastically altered, perhaps it was the fact that most of the politicians come from large estates or farming communities, their weekend pleasures of grouse shooting or skeet shooting could have been affected, do you think that could have something to do with it?.........

With the alternatives, I sincerely doubt that a (sawed off) shotgun is still the preferred weapon among UK criminals.