General election candidates' views on firearms ownership

[Ben1981]

realistically even if we go with the premise that UKIP would win the elections(trying my best to restrain from laughing as it is sooooooo unlikely) those bans couldn't be lifted without a majority in the parlament and even then, all that majority should be in agreement to lift the ban. With sadness I must say that personal opinion is that lifting the ban will not happen. It would be handy though if the guns that we are currently allowed to own won't be taken away. Not that bothered about increasing the checks before you can get an FAC but I would not like to see fullbores for instance taken away completely from target shooting regardless of how many quality references you've got or how good character you are in society.
Unless mentality changes, the vast majority are currently all for banning all guns from UK society. I wish there was away to change that. Also as Daniel11 said earlier I agree that Tories did what they did because despite the fact that David Cameron himself is a gun owner and an active shooter , at the end of the day he represents the majority and the majority asked for banning all guns. What he did was to cut his losses by offering them a compromise which ultimately helped the shooting community. I might be wrong but that's the way I see things at this point. I am willing to change my point of view if presented with reasonable arguments.

[Airbrush]

realistically even if we go with the premise that UKIP would win the elections(trying my best to restrain from laughing as it is sooooooo unlikely) those bans couldn't be lifted without a majority in the parlament and even then, all that majority should be in agreement to lift the ban. With sadness I must say that personal opinion is that lifting the ban will not happen. It would be handy though if the guns that we are currently allowed to own won't be taken away. Not that bothered about increasing the checks before you can get an FAC but I would not like to see fullbores for instance taken away completely from target shooting regardless of how many quality references you've got or how good character you are in society.
Unless mentality changes, the vast majority are currently all for banning all guns from UK society. I wish there was away to change that. Also as Daniel11 said earlier I agree that Tories did what they did because despite the fact that David Cameron himself is a gun owner and an active shooter , at the end of the day he represents the majority and the majority asked for banning all guns. What he did was to cut his losses by offering them a compromise which ultimately helped the shooting community. I might be wrong but that's the way I see things at this point. I am willing to change my point of view if presented with reasonable arguments.

I disagree with the statement you make about the majority wanting to ban guns, I think the majority don't give a s*** & believe we're not allowed guns as it stands now.

Obviously it only ever comes up if some nutter ends up going on a shooting spree.

[SevenSixTwo]

Unless mentality changes, the vast majority are currently all for banning all guns from UK society. I wish there was away to change that.

There is: get people shooting. Strength in numbers.

Also as Daniel11 said earlier I agree that Tories did what they did because despite the fact that David Cameron himself is a gun owner and an active shooter , at the end of the day he represents the majority and the majority asked for banning all guns.

Cameron isn't a "gun owner". He owns shotgun(s). Anybody can do that.

The majority didn't ask to ban handguns (or semi-auto for that matter) at all. A petition of a mere 705,000 hysterical, emotionally-driven people "persuaded" the government to ban handguns and a numerically weak shooting "lobby" capitulated.

[Ben1981]

I see. Well like I said I am open minded so if you know the facts better, I stand corrected. For some reason I personally believed that it was a vast majority(something down the lines of 90% ish) of the population that wanted a total ban. But if it wasn't even a million people asking for it then yeh , it's not a number impossible to surpass by promoting the sport of shooting. As for Cameron , I thought he owned rifles not shotguns and he wanted more or less to align himself to the royal family which are historically pro shooting and hunting. Again this is just my perception.

On the other hand there's the other side of the coin. What if the Greens were coming into power? I still don't think they could do much to actually cause real change in terms of gun ownership over a short period of time. Somebody more in the know might be able to explain why that is not so but I would've thought it takes time to change a law anyways regardless of how keen the leader is.

[Daniel11]

As far as I know Mr Cameron shoots game birds and stalks deer in Scotland, which i'd imagine involves both Rifles and Shotguns. This does not however, mean he is a good thing for British shooters: Any relaxation of laws he proposes will be seen as the 'Tory Elite of Shooters' endangering children etc etc. That is why a Tory government under a non-shooter such as (I imagine) Boris Johnson, would be more helpful.

Not, by the way, to suggest I dislike Cameron's politics, just that his image may hinder any pro-shooting acts.

[SevenSixTwo]

Happy to stand corrected on Camoron's rifle ownership but you people are INSANE voting for Tories who WILL take your guns again ~ either at the behest of a daft, four-person "pressure" group - or, eventually, the EU.

[Daniel11]

If this discussion has come down to who to vote for, as a matter of interest, who would you recommend? (Bearing in mind many of us live in a part of GB where 'UKIP' and 'Tory' are swear words, not to be uttered in a favorable light under pain of excommunication from the realm of Scottishness.)

[Death2Ticks]

Let's not get side-tracked about Cameron's alleged gun ownership making him a friend of those of us in the wider shooting community. Cameron, and the rest of the ruling elite, will always have their shooting protected under any legislation due to their connections with 'land management' ... in other words estate ownership. Forget the ordinary folks who've got permission to knock-off a few pigeons/rabbits or the many involved shooting targets - their facility to shoot can be stripped at a moments notice but any new rules will always allow the toffs to shoot.

[Daniel11]

Let's not get side-tracked about Cameron's alleged gun ownership making him a friend of those of us in the wider shooting community. Cameron, and the rest of the ruling elite, will always have their shooting protected under any legislation due to their connections with 'land management' ... in other words estate ownership. Forget the ordinary folks who've got permission to knock-off a few pigeons/rabbits or the many involved shooting targets - their facility to shoot can be stripped at a moments notice but any new rules will always allow the toffs to shoot.

True. There are numerous 'widely accepted' arguments in favour of estate shooting, yet the same media who recognise this 'necessary evil' are happy to go after target shooters or those who shoot game on their own small patch or a neighbour's.

I don't however think that the Conservative party would ever support a ban on such shooting, Toffs they may be, but they are, I think, relatively principled toffs, evidenced by Boris Johnson recently suggesting that allowing Farmers to own guns was a reason to vote Tory.

[Ben1981]

SevenSixTwo As far as I know none of the EU countries have a handgun ban