you want gun control, pack up and move to the UK

March 1st, 2012

We’ve predicted this would happen… and, gee, what do you know?

Original at:

http://www.omaha.com/Omaha/OWH/StoryViewer/1,3153,329980,00.html

> Britain Eyes Tighter Gun Restrictions
>
> London (AP) – A cross-party committee of lawmakers recommended Thursday that
> Britain further tighten its gun laws to make airguns subject to the same restrictions
> as other weapons and prohibit children under 14 from handling all firearms.
>
> Britain’s pro-gun lobby immediately attacked the proposals by the Home Affairs
> Select Committee, contending they would restrict legitimate gun owners but not
> criminals.
>
> Home Office minister Charles Clarke called the lawmakers’ report “detailed and
> wide-ranging” and promised that the Labor Party government would “make a full
> response in due course.”
>
> Britain has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. Handguns were banned
> after a gunman shot and killed 16 kindergarteners and their teacher in Dunblane,
> Scotland, in 1996.
>
> Under the lawmakers’ proposals, all guns capable of killing would be subject to
> the same restrictions. Airguns – which use compressed air to fire projectiles -
> would be licensed, with owners having to prove they are fit to own a gun, have a
> safe place to store it and have good reasons for keeping it.
>
> An estimated 4 million airguns are in circulation around Britain, accounting for 70
> percent of the firearms held legally, the report said.
>
> Figures for 1998-99 showed that nearly two-thirds of all recorded firearms
> offenses were linked to air weapons, according to the report. Most of those
> offenses involved criminal damage, but nearly 2,000 also involved injuries to
> people, it said.
>
> The lawmakers also recommended tightening the screening process for gun
> licenses, and giving police the power to revoke a license if authorities feared
> someone had become unstable. And they called on the government to set up a
> computer database with details of all firearms owners in Britain.
>
> They also said a minimum age should be set for gun use, but remained
> undecided over whether the age should be 12 or 14.
>
> Committee chairman Robin Corbett said the lawmakers had set out to simplify the
> legislation and make it more consistent. He said they did not want to threaten
> law-abiding gun owners.
>
> “That is not our intention and we do not think that will happen,” Corbett said.
>
> But John Hoare, secretary of the National Small Bore Rifle Association, said the
> proposed regulations will hit “those who are law-abiding and cause no mischief,
> damage or injury to anyone.”
>
> “They will not affect criminals,” he said.
>
> The recommendations also failed to please the antigun lobby. The Gun Control
> Network criticized the report as not going far enough, saying it would “do little to
> discourage future generations of shooters.”