Gun Control

[Smally85]

Originally posted by JohnJ
Ps I voted labour and I'm very proud of it. And just in case you think I'm the only one, here's the number of MPs returned for each party (Say the words LABOUR LANDSLIDE )
Labour: 413
Cons: 166
Lib Dems: 52
Others: 10

Labour Landslide? Yes very good.... and how many people ACTUALLY voted for Labour?
Well this many actually...
Labour 41.9% 413 seats (62.7%)
Cons 31.7% 166 seats (25.2%)
Lib Dems 17% 52 seats (7.9%)

Turnout 59.4%

So less than 30 % of the people actually voted for Labour but they got 62.7% of the seats. Isn't FPTP great! JD, its people like you who don't vote that let this sort of thing happen, but then thats life! **** happens.

 

[TonyF]

Originally posted by Smally85
So less than 30 % of the people actually voted for Labour but they got 62.7% of the seats. Isn't FPTP great! JD, its people like you who don't vote that let this sort of thing happen, but then thats life! **** happens.

Got to agree with you there. The people that cannot be bothered to vote have no right to complain when the govenments screw it up.
I know they are all as bad as each other, but we should all think ourselves lucky that we at least have a chance to vote. There are many countries in the world where the people have never been able to vote, or ever will.
As a point of interest JD if an MP in your area was anti-paintball would you bother to vote against him! or would you still not vote at all.

 

[Smally85]

Originally posted by TonyF
The people that cannot be bothered to vote have no right to complain when the govenments screw it up.
I know they are all as bad as each other, but we should all think ourselves lucky that we at least have a chance to vote. There are many countries in the world where the people have never been able to vote, or ever will.

Exactly! Isn't democracy great!
Put it this way, in Australia it is an offence not to vote... you will get fined for it... and they get bloody excellent turnouts! Maybe we should try that here!
Did anyone notice how Labour promised a referendum on electoral reform in '97? Has anyone seen that yet? Its great you have parties who moan about how unfair FPTP is and as soon as they win (using FPTP) they seem to go VERY quiet on the subject!
JD does have a point when he says 'they're all politicians' though!

 

[brian]

Originally posted by crom-dubh
Yeah but they could still change the laws which would harm paintball. they could increase the age of ownership or usage to 18. Or even have licences for PB markers. I know its an infeasable thing to do but how many people have been stopped by the police and questioned about their markers?

The shotgun laws could still be tightened up as well. You may need to register and have on your licence every shotgun you own.

as a firearms licence holder i can state that you do need to register EVERYs/gun you have and it must be written on to your licence itself,and there are not thousands of farmers out there with unlicenced guns,i for one am for tighter gun control but only in the respect that i dont have to duck in macdonalds in birmingham everytime a dodgy beemer drives past with some gun toting ****wit shouting"i,m gonna pop a cap in yo ass!" if everyones been watching the news lately its hardly surprising that do gooders want every gun lookalike banned,i have kids the same age as the girls that where shot dead in brum and wouldn,t like to be the parent of a dead daughter,if anybody in p8ntland wants to keep shooting support the ukpsf,or lobby your mp so he doesn,t ban summat he knows nowt about

 

[Matski]

Yeaa Birmingham puts the WILD in the Wild West Midlands.......Par just leaves the ol two bit shotguns lying around in case me n' Marr get scared and ave to blow **** up god nam it YEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAW!


On a serious note (for once), tighter gun control has made things worse. They banned most types of gun ownership after that evil ******* went on the rampage at some school. The tighter control has opened up a massive black market for guns, and the gun dealers dont care who they sell to.
Paintball has alot in its defense, afterall you dont hear of many pball markers been used in gun crimes so the likelihood of the public calling for a ban on paintball guns is low.
The only real threat is paintball guns being tarred with the same brush as 'air weapons', which do get used in crime.
Didnt they try to ban paintball in Wisconsin (USA) not so long ago? As soon as the pball community and local industry got together to 'enlighten' the appropriate fools of what paintball was actually like, they appologised and backed off. I would hope a similar thing would happen here


Or id be immigrating!

 

[brian]

right on

With you on that one matski,we do need to enlighten some of the fools out there about paintball and we are not gun toting criminals as some of the public would have you believe,i mean i,m hoping we never see the day when an ******* walks into a shop etc.wielding what appears to be a gun but is in fact a p/ball marker shouting "nobody move,iv,e got a tippman!?!" note tactful use of the word marker,might be a good idea if the word marker became a bit more used in p8ntland instead of gun,might put a small amount of distance between us and gun toting maniacs which can only be a good thing.On a lighter note nobody in their right mind would hold a shop up with a tippman!!.......would they?...brian....matski,see you at the indoor?take care m8,its a scary world out there... p.s thats two bit...you fuel,speloing,shoorely sum mistooke

 

[JoseDominguez]

Tighter gun controls haven't made things worse, there are still illegal guns out there and that's always going to be the case. But if there are no legal guns, it makes it a damn sight harder to obtain an illegal one! you have to get them on the black market, you can't just steal one from a shop or collector, they have to be imported. illegal guns start of legal (unless you can get access to knock of Khalakovs from india), in England we don't have the accidental deaths of the US (kids looking for christmas pressies and finding dad's Glock) or the opportunistic loss of temper shooting, an English kid can't borrow his dad's bolt action and climb the clock tower. Think about recent events, lunatics with machetes at nursery schools or hatchets in churches, in the US they may well have owned a legitimate handgun, how much worse would it have been?
As for "some school", that was Dunblane primary, sixteen four and five year olds and their teacher were slaughtered by Thomas Hamilton. He had access to legal weapons and hadn't broken the law until he committed murder, today he could be arrested for buying, owning or handling any of his weapons do you get the point? Today he would have to obtain his weapons illegaly, requiring planning and criminal intent long in advance, rather than just snapping and unlocking his gun cabinet.

 

[JoseDominguez]

Just think about it, last year we had a single fatal drive by resulting in two fatalities, how many did the US have last night? For god's sake, the US lost more celebrities to handguns last year than we lost in total.

It's very different in the US, their right to bear arms is constitutional, and originaly for good reason, it's too late to stop it now, there are just too many fire-arms. In the UK, we still have a chance.

 

[John Molloy]

Thomas Hamilton would not have had a license if the licenser had listened to the desk sergeant at the local police station as he was a known loonie (turns out it was a thyroid problem) that whole situation was avoidable.

 

[Richard Kirke (DUPS Rocket) UK]

Guns and Roses (labour ones that is).

Originally posted by JoseDominguez
As for "some school", that was Dunblane primary, sixteen four and five year olds and their teacher were slaughtered by Thomas Hamilton. He had access to legal weapons and hadn't broken the law until he committed murder <snip>

No, Thomas Hamilton had illegal fire-arms (at least I'm pretty sure of that).

Legal hand-guns were used for pistol shooting, a sport which Great Britain used to excel at and now cannot even compete in. These guns were kept under VERY strict control. On the other hadn the illegal gun trade is massive, and they are used all the time! It is very important to separate the two.

JohnJ,

In answer to your comments, probably all governments do govern via knee-jerk, but that doesn't make it right does it? I am not a huge fan of this Labour government, my impression is that there is too much focus on image and not enough on substance. The Labour governments huge majority and innefective opposition (see I don't like the tories much either ) means that they had the power to do a great deal of good for this country.

Of course Tony Blare may be accused of bypassing the entire parliamentary process too (Afganistan, Iraq 2...), something about which I have very strong views when the British armed forces are involved (my father and many of my friends are serving soldiers etc).

Anyway, I think that this is getting needlesly political which is not the point of these forums at all, if anyone wishes to continue any of this off-list then they are quite welcome to.

Richard