Mr. Toad,
As I have said all along, the 1997 legislation did bugger all and that's because gun control was
already very tight indeed. I have posted statements I made last October to that effect, but you don't seem to want to accept them. You are so consumed with your erroneous belief that the REAL gun ban was in 1997, to the point where you believe that Britain was a nation of gun enthusiasts, and that large numbers of Britons were "forced to hand in their weapons" against their wishes. It's true, the amnesties pulled in thousands of guns, but highly unlikely that these were held legitimately. Your NRA source said
"Thus the Firearms Act of 1920 sailed through Parliament. Britons who had formerly enjoyed a right to arms were now allowed to possess pistols and rifles only if they proved they had "good reason" for receiving a police permit.” Nobody had "enjoyed a
right" to arms. In Britain, that has never existed as a
right the way it has in America with the 2nd amendment. Those who carried arms did so in many cases to protect themselves against highwaymen and their ilk on long coach journeys, for example, in the days when said coach was drawn by horses.
Any notion you or the NRA has about people in Britain going out to shoot guns at the range just for the hell of it is largely false. Of course, the NRA is able to couch its propaganda in terms like that because the target audience is American, many of whom have never left their home state, and therefore cannot conceive the idea of an unarmed society. Neither, it seems, can you.
You could have if the little monarch in your local police station had decided you had a legitimate reason.
Once again you're doing what you berate zulu7 for doing - posting like a male donkey. The little monarch in question in 1920 was His Majesty King George V, grandfather of the current Queen. He was not in the habit of hanging around at the local nick. And any legitimate reason for having a gun would not include the mere fact that you wanted one to go plinking at tin cans etc., or to exercise any "rights", because there WERE no rights. Stick that up your shotgun barrel and smoke it.
