The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

dromia wrote:There were mass murders before the invention of firearms and there will be mass murders if firearms are taken away.

Burke and Hare
Sawney Bean

Just two examples that were at the top of my head.

Alpha1, FAC in 7-9 months is about the minimum. 6 months to become a full cub member, then however long it takes to issue. How long have you been shooting, haven't learned the rules yet? ;-)

I have held a firearms licence for at least 25 years so yes I may be a bit out of touch with how long it takes to acquire one if you are a new shooter straight of the street.

Whatever convinces the antis would work for me, they're the ones that need to be appeased

Nothing will convince the ants, apart from no firearms in civilian hands.

I didn't say any of that, in fact what I've suggested may prevent it. What would you change to keep firearms out of the hands of those who are unfit to hold a licence?

Perhaps there's more to monitoring rifle club member's mental well being than I realise and perhaps that's enough, but without being privy to the conversation between my FEO and our club secretary when I applied for my FAC I wouldn't know. Is there an ongoing assessment of people?

Sim G wrote:So you'd support a total ban on everything? That's what GCN believe is required to prevent another mass shooting and even if it saves just one life, it would be worth it. So that's a stance you could take?

Firstly, there is nothing any government can do to prevent another mass shooting. They can limit the possibility/probability, but they will never prevent it.

Secondly, there is no half way with firearms legislation. We've tried all of the negotiation and appeasement and gave still had two gun bans. Some of us never want that again and w know softly softly will not save us, we gave to meet it head on forcibly.

That's unfair, just because I don't agree with you, doesn't mean I haven't thought it through, although I confess I'm no expert. By extension of your logic, there's no point in anyone having a psychiatric test for anything because they're easily fudged. I don't think that's true, otherwise no one would ever be diagnosed mentally ill.

ordnance wrote:If that is the case no amount of psychiatric tests will stop it. From all accounts Ted Bundy was a charming intelligent nice individual, and would have no problem passing a psychiatric test. We know how that ended. As I have already said people can tell psychiatric doctors what they want to hear, there is no blood test for psychiatric illness. You really need to think things through before posting.

I didn't say any of that, in fact what I've suggested may prevent it. What would you change to keep firearms out of the hands of those who are unfit to hold a licence?

There are already things in place to try and prevent firearms ( legally getting ) into the hands of people unfit to hold a licence. You need referees. You have a criminal background check . The police can check your medical records. there is no perfect system. And as I have said peoples mental state can change from day to day, how do you monitor that. ?

Perhaps there's more to monitoring rifle club member's mental well being than I realise and perhaps that's enough

What makes someone at a club qualified to monitor any ones mental health.

By extension of your logic, there's no point in anyone having a psychiatric test for anything because they're easily fudged. I don't think that's true, otherwise no one would ever be diagnosed mentally ill.

People go to the doctor with mental health problems looking help. Someone looking a firearm would not admit mental health problems . Do you see the difference. ?

It may be worth looking at this from a slightly different angle, more akin to what Dromia mentioned a few pages before.

Instead of infighting why don't we ALL (I know many already are) become more proactive, more letters etc... but also recruiting grass roots members, many clubs will be near a University of a cadet force (iirc Dromia your club already tries to help cadets?) Why not recruit and persuade the young? The uni club I belong to would be nowhere without the support they have received from the local shooting club, the have a discounted student membership rate and when possible accommodate an afternoon solely for students to shoot. In 2 years we have risen from 4 to nearly 70 members, most of whom have never touched a gun before or have limited exposure through cadets. We promote EVERY discipline possible, what we can't shoot on the mainland we organise trips to the channel islands to do.

THIS is the the way forward, recruit young, and support them, sure a number may not stay on but at least we've begun the process of educating others in firearms and the reality of the situation. We have since started working with friends in various political societies to get debates going, the Classical Liberals held a debate last time to which I was invited as an opening speaker on the matter of gun control, of the 40 or so people in the room only 5 had shot before, we had an overwhelmingly positive response and as a result I am trying to organise a large one with Labour and Conservative students.

As the old cliche goes, the government have so far won battles, they took our SLRs, handguns and ridiculously restricted what else we can own, but they have yet to win the war, and only we can turn the tide.

Dromia, do you have a link to firearms uk?

christel wrote:Dromia, do you have a link to firearms uk?

Here it is Christel

http://firearmsuk.org/

They are also highly active on facebook

Thanks dave_303, weird I did a search and found nothing.

Don't do faceshite.