‘I hope you don’t feel like freepers in general are being critical of English firearm laws or traditions. The approach to firearms there is so different from the U.S. that lots of us are amazed at the differences. But we recognize that the people there can make whatever rules are comfortable.’
Thank you for that 68skylark.
I fully support the US campaign against gun control because that is what is right for America, but what we have is right for us. We have a very different culture and attitude towards handguns and it works for us, but that is not criticism of the US system. I suspect that most Brits find it just as shocking that an 18 year old soldier on leave from Iraq can’t buy a beer as you guys do that we can’t buy a handgun, but we each choose the way that suits our own country. One set of rules does not fit every country.
What sorts of long arms are you allowed and under what limitations? My understanding of British rules limiting possession of arms is that broadly speaking they were/are usually what the elites were comfortable with.
That is to say restrictions were/are based historically (originally) on one’s class, religious affiliation and loyalty to the dynasty in power, ie., no guns for the Catholics, the Irish, adherents of the Stuarts or the working classes.
In the modern era it seems the rules are for the convenience of the bureaucrats that run the state.
Not that that sort of arrangement is unusual in any state!