In response to that previous bit I posted I also read this

from the Times

You know what, I'm getting very very impressed by David Davis. He's an asset to DC's team, perhaps the "gun lobby" could have prospered if David Davis had been voted party leader but even with him as potentially the next Home Secretary they (ok canvas, I) should be satisfied.

He seems to have recognised that home defence needs to be looked at, and that Jack Straws home office figures regarding gun crime are fiction. I just hope that he has the wisdom and foresight to see that the pistol ban has only affected good people in society and should be reviewed in the interest of having just laws.

Well David Davis is zooming up my popularity chart. When the tories get in I think he would be a very strong person to be in the Home Office. His debates show an honour and integrity that has been missed the last ten years.

I sent him a nice long email asking a question I asked of DC. What is his position on pistols for sport. I just hope it shows a greater strength than Boris's toeing the party line.

Stoke Mandeville.

I've mentioned this before.
AirgunBBS

But I really think it deserves another mention.
A bunch of forum members on a shooting forum are digging deep and trying to renovate the National Disabled Shooting Center at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

The center is where our paralympians are training for 2012.

They are forking out thousands of pounds of their own money to do this because shooting seems a taboo subject for politicians and the media. No funding from the IOC, no big business sponsors, they are releying on the good deeds of people the government love to hate.

Well the roof repair is well underway and they have their sights on the end wall followed by a major tarting up on the interior.
Estimated bill so far £40k.

This will be done, because shooters care.

Thanks to all those who have donated.

The media will not give any publicity, they are under orders not to promote anything good about people who use guns even though these are decent people who only shoot as a sport.
They wont go against government policy.

AirgunBBS if a forum just like this one, so far they have raised £20,000 in donations towards this work in just a few weeks. As well as topping it up with their own money. Even to the point of taking out personal loans to make sure this gets done.

There are members who are kitchen fitters and builders who are giving from their own materials and stock to get the job done. We have bathroom fitters who will go in and completly refurbish the loos.
Individuals are buying paint and stuff ready to work on the interior and make it fit for use by severely disabled people.

I have a tune by Heather Small jingling in my head.


What have you done today.

David spoke recently of the importance of family values and mending a broken society.

The shooters at the Disabled Shooting Center are my extended family. It may be that you see them as some sort of social deviant because they choose shooting as a sport or for some a pastime till they leave us. They deserve more than to be swept to the back of your minds.

Mend this situation.

I think Boris would be great. Anyone who can say that they want to bring "a little joy back into the lives of Londoners" has to be on the right track. When did you last hear the present incumbent say that? Bring it on Boris is my all-purpose general slogan, and I mean it!

in his latest article on boris-johnson.com, Boris Johnson bemoans the growth in world population and how to attempt to affect it has become a taboo.

What gives him the right to talk about this subject when he has selfishly and irresponsibly fathered 4 children?

I am fully aware, as I’m sure many are, of the history of how we came to be in the current situation regarding the pistol ban introduced under the Conservative government in 1996. The actions of one person were used as a catalyst to ban the sport of 57000 decent law abiding people. A picture was painted that all guns are bad so ban them. It is frequently referred to as a knee jerk reaction. The Cullen report recommended that there was no need to ban the .22 pistols that are the most frequently used in the sport. But despite this the newly elected labour party banned them anyway in 1997.

The debates as documented by Hansards acknowledged that the threat of a future atrocity being committed by a sportsman was insignificant.

There was an indication of concern that stolen sportsmen’s pistols might be used in crime despite the fact that as far as records for the previous ten years showed no stolen pistol had ever turned up having been used in criminal activity. So there is no justification for this draconian law other than a political desire to disarm the populous.

The country’s sport shooter’s are not criminals in fact they work with the police to prevent illegal use, for instance reporting those with a suspicious attraction to firearms.

It has been noted recently that Labour party statistics related to criminal use of firearms since they got into power are misleading. Criminal use has increased since the ban which must show that there was no link between sporting and criminal use.

Since Dunblane the procedures for obtaining a firearms certificate (FAC) have been substantially tightened. Hamilton should never have been in possession of the pistols he held, the club of which he was a member of did not have facilities for him to fire them and there was no record of his using them for target shooting.

Today we have to belong to a club where our firearms are used and the club keeps a record of our shooting activities. Anyone who does not use their firearms regularly or who’s membership to a club lapses is reported to the firearms department and their firearms must be surrendered. Club members are under constant scrutiny of their behaviour and what they say, both by club officers and other members. It is in the interest of all responsible users to make sure only serious sportsmen have an FAC. Not only do we kick them out of the clubs but we report them to the police for them to take suitable action. Liaison between shooters and local firearms officers is much greater than it was in 1996. We have no problem with that and welcome the protection that it gives us as sportsmen.

My own view of a safe reintroduction would be to allow only those who have held an FAC for at least five years to be allowed to apply to have a pistol. They would by then have established a shooting record and would have passed scrutiny within a club to verify them as safe and regular users.

Another factor with Hamilton was the number of pistols with which he carried out his atrocity. There is no need for a sportsman to amass a huge arsenal. A limit of two pistols would eliminate that possibility. Restricting one to .22 would reduce potential firepower still further. There are competitions that require other calibres so to restrict ownership to solely .22 would still prevent the participation we should be permitted. The majority of club shooters would be more than satisfied with a single .22 pistol.

There are frequently concerns raised about the holding of a pistol at home within the FAC holders police approved security. This can be eliminated by a requirement to leave a critical component (barrel or slide) in the club security.

All the fears can be remedied with little thought and planning and without great expense.

I put it to you that a reintroduction of pistols for sport would not put the public at significant risk.

I request that the Conservative party offer us a fair review of the pistol ban in the light of the situation today.
.

Most on here will be aware that I would like to see a review of the pistol ban.

There is a petition that ends later this month so I am having a final push for signatures.

target pistols petition

I am sure there are some people with inteligence that read this forum and I hope they can see there is no link whatsoever between criminals and sportsmen. The ban only affects sportshooters, criminals ignore it.

I would appreciate if you could sign this petition.

Thank you.

Help me smokey

signed up an got the message on the email
click link below.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/TargetPistols/BacbXhCYJlCxBFMIJ3AaZTr
but its inactive : suggestions ?

Physics
May need to be copied and pasted but for me this did not work so I had to type it in . Have already signed and had to do this as clicking on the link they sent did not work

Thank you both.

Physics, with a handle like yours I would presume you to be more computer savvy than me.

When I copied your link
your link
It says thank you for your vote so I assume it has been registered.

I know in the early days of that site there were problems with access but I assume they would be fixed by now.

Perhaps because of the topic they dont want you to be able to vote for it.

I know of at least twenty who have signed it this evening but the tally has only gone up by eight. Do you think there may be some cheating going on?

Yes your right Im second from the bottom of the list now

I live in a Labour held constituency.
Out of interest I emailed the prospctive A list Conservative candidate to find out her views regarding shooting as a sport.

Her reply was most interesting.

"I am am enthusiastic about shooting"

The Labour MP got in with a majority of just over a thousand last election. The shooting clubs here command well over that number of votes, along with family and friends we can perhaps be the ones to put the tory A lister into parliament.

The gun lobby are prepared to support your members David. Are you prepared to support mine?

Monbiot writes comment articles about as often as Boris, and makes a living from journalism like Boris.

But compare this first sentence, from his latest blog entry (guardian website tuesday 13th nov):

"Loth as I am to threaten my reputation as a bilious old git, I feel compelled to shock you."

It's sort of like the first sentences of lots of Boris' articles... only much, much better.

People admire Boris' writing style. I find it hackneyed.

Dunno about hackneyed, I would say influenced. Perhaps influenced by the style of others, his chosen topics seem original enough.

I guess all of us are influenced in our writings, whether it be by the ones who taught us or by our favourite readings somethings shape the way we phrase things.

Mine I feel is a mixture of Capt W E Johns and the script of Catweasel.

"touchwood leave that telling bone alone"

Sport shooters should not frighten you.

link

I do not apologise for reiteration of part of Smokeless' post earlier




If only the politicians would read and accept this is true.

Keep fighting, Smokeless

By far the most important criteria to consider about the pistol ban is whether it is in the public interest.

Were people at significant risk by sportsmen being in possession of pistols?

Two persons went berserk in the past hundred years. That the system failed in regard to them having FAC’s is not important. The fact is it is an insignificant number.

There was insignificant risk of sportsmens pistols being used in crime. Evidence from the preceding ten years showed that no legally held pistols that had been stolen have been recovered having been used in crime.

Does the ban damage the lives of the public?
There could be the argument that the number affected by the ban is low. There were just 57,000, but is it fair to discriminate against a minority? No of course not.

Britons cannot practice a legitimate sport, one of the core sports of the Olympic Games. Not all those affected by the ban would have participated at that level in the same way that Sunday friendly match footballers would not have aspirations of playing at Wembley. Club shooting is a hobby or pastime perhaps self improvement or a sociable activity so the lives of those who participated was defiantly damaged.

There is the cost of the ban to consider £94million. As well as the income generated and the employment lost. These costs affect the public so there is an ongoing damage being caused.

Property that had been legally held was removed from members of the public. There is a human rights issue here. The pistols have not been destroyed, they are still being held by the police ten years on. Could it be through fear of a legal challenge to the ban demanding they be returned?

I think it is clear that the pistol ban is not in the public interest. and should be reviewed.

After a beautifully written bit of writing what like
that was, I just want to clean my guns.
In america they can clean their BPAGs
black plastic army gun.

An Boris if ya listening ,can I have your comb
Your not useing it really are you,recycle it
in my direction an it could be worth a vote:)
in a best shirt of the year comp ya never know.

I can just see myself scraping me bonce with a
posh comb.luxury.

But not likely
:)

Thank you for what I am assuming is a compliment on my writing Phys.

It may interest some that I am not a well educated man, I left secondary school at 15 in the last year it was allowed to do so. From a family with five siblings I had no choice other than to start earning. The school I went to was excellent, boys only so no distraction of the female kind, it was run in a similar fashion to a grammar school so perhaps what David was hinting at a few weeks ago is not such a bad idea.

I may not have letters like CSE or GCSE in my CV but I feel I can list common sense amongst my attributes. And common sense tells me the pistol ban is wrong.

And this post has some link to Boris and his role as Shadow Education minister.

Smokeless

Your literary grasp is firmer than mine :)

: I would like to see :

1)Morals
2)Manners
3)Chivalry
4)Rights

On the school curriculum "Brit Pack " edition.

1/2 an hour a week could teach so many so much.
by so few at £0.o cost.

What do you think ?

ps: give your dog a biscuit...:)

Hmm, nice choice there phys. I would be inclined to include Respect and Tolerance in that list.

We all have to live on this rock and we all need to get along with each other.

I think I'd pass your 1 to 4, though number 3 gives me some problems. "whats this old gits game giving up his seat on the bus to a young lady", holding open a door for a womens liber has gained a scornful remark a few times too.

I agree No 3 chivalry is a sub group of manners.

So :

1) Morals
2) Manners
3) Rights

Sort of an MMR jab.

:)

If Boris becomes Major or London, I don’t really think he would design a new routemasters bus that Londoners favour

bump for Gunnut to catch up.