British Gun (& knife) Laws:

The 'Poms' do rather have their knickers in a twist about *GUNS* - of course they are ignoring the realities - well known by lawful shooters - that criminal violence is caused by ..  criminals - NOT by the item that they choose to use. (kitchen knives, screw drivers, drain cleaner, mopeds, golf clubs, trucks, cans of petrol ...).

Surprising facts are that there are in 'gun-banned UK' some 1.3 Million shotguns and 525,125 licensed other firearms.

As you would of course realize .. those licensed long-arms and the few remaining handguns seldom cause any issues.

The SUN newspaper reported that - so far this year - there have been 1,299 stabbings in London, 51 of them were FATAL. . LBC Radio is saying 5 new stabbings overnight -2 FATAL.
Crime figures released in July 2018 showed knife crime surged by 16-20 percent.

The total number of offences involving a knife or bladed instrument that have been recorded by UK cops in the year to March 2018 rose to 40,147, a seven-year-high.

GUN use in crime is up by close to 5%  - Meanwhile their right wing UK elected politicians have REDUCED Police numbers by nearly 21,000.

 Lawful sporting pistol shooters have to use weird joke adaptions - those "long handguns" (over two foot long) - that are a ridiculous way to have to use to maintain legal sport target shooting - (or the alternative "black powder guns")

 - And further regarding these LEGAL two foot long handguns ... haven't the authorities got enough imagination to realize that a loopy "NUTTER" would just use a saw to shorten the barrel and remove the long stock before going out as a 'live shooter'?

All these daft rules do is inconvenience and limit law-abiding citizens.

British "Muzzle Loading" Conversion .. NO Self Contained Cartridges.

.. but modern "black powder pistols" are reasonably usable for a skill based interest. It only takes around an hour to strip and clean one properly when you get home! - A stainless steel Ruger Old Army is a beautiful piece of gear & good fun to shoot. - Wouldn't it be great if Ruger started building them again.

Some links to UK video about UK firearms ownership currently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78VDHtA-6YE

- another video about current UK firearms users:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT3cPwV4uTk

Knives: - To be honest I found this helpful gentleman rather boring - but he does explain that a Brit may have a folding blade 'penknife' with the blade shorter than 3 inches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01yHH7iZuvU

- Offensive weapons specifically Banned by The Home Office in UK. - This reviewer is amusing and correct in his comments. - as he says - more than 90% of UK criminal acts with edged weapons are with legal kitchen cutlery or 'box-cutters' & screw-drivers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1v5NmJD-A

Thinking people know that BANNING things is a waste of time & money .. because the nutters and criminals invariably ignore the law. Why don't they try banning the criminals?

Marty K.