Dan

In a few years time I can see that being a real proposition, we had the shooting of a 15 year old youth here only last week, shot several times with a 9mm semi- auto pistol, possibly by another youth, the Police think it is either gang realted or a possible mistaken identity.

Hand guns have been outlawed here since the Dunblane massacre in the late 1990's, still handguns are available to criminals to this day, our governements response is to say they will look again at tightening our laws on gun ownership.

As long as all criminals register their guns to start with, I think this could well work

We lost the right to possess semi auto rifles (other than ,.22 rim-fire) after the Hungerford shootings in the late 1980s.

We cannot own pump and semi- auto shotguns with mag capacities greater than 2 shots unless they are licensed as a firearm rather than a shotgun, there is a vast difference in licensing and use requirement for the two different weapons.

Hand guns (other than muzzle loading pistols) went in the late 1990's as did the automatic right to possess expanding rifle ammunition, including soft nosed and hollow point hunting bullets without special authority on your license having been granted.

The Blair government have stated only last year that they intend to re-visit the issue of gun-ownership and look at reviewing the gun law even further.

One proposal put forward by an anti-gun lobby was to have the front windows of all gun shops blacked out, much like sex shops are forced to do here, so as not to offend any antis looking in, also entry into such shops would be prohibited for those under the age of 18.

The Draconian proposals then went forward seek to class air guns as firearms and have just one class of licence to cover all shotguns and firearms which would seek also impose limits on the number of guns a private individual could possess.

Only internal strife in t he Governemt and the unceremoinial sacking of the last Home Secretary by Tony Blair has so far prevented any changes, but I hear that it remains on the agenda for further review during the next session of Parliament.

In the U.S you are incredibly fortunate to have enshrined into your Constitution the Second Amndement, we have no such instrument and as such will always remain susceptible to the whims and capriciousness of any anti- gun government.

We can only dream here of having the opportunities you all enjoy in the U.S.

The incident described above with Mick Sheppard was mentioned on all major news bulletins, seemingly the police raid was carried out in conjunction with consecutive raids i the US by the FBI as part of a world wide investigation into arms trafficking.

The film footage showed armed Police removing large numbers of weapons including semi- automatic rifles like the FN SLR, M-15 (16?) and even some from the AK 47 family. If Mr. Sheppard did not posess authority form the Home Office to posess such weapons then he will undoubteldy face imprisonment, I think the maximum terms for such offences is presently 5 years and a hefty fine, the guns, if semi- auto would also be confiscated and destroyed.

I understand he has already been before the court on a number of offences but to date have not heard of any outcome.