Reply #54: crap, you're doing badly so far

[iverglas]

Yet another false one.

Great Britain has outlawed pistols no one may own one, their Olympic shooting team has to travel to France to practise.

Oh look, this news is only well over a year old:

http://www.shootinguk.co.uk/news/266949/GB_Pistol_Shots_to_be_allowed_to_train_in_the_UK.html

Britain’s Olympic pistol shooters are one step closer to being granted permission to train in the UK. On 8 July, Tessa Jowell, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, was asked in Parliament under what circumstances people can practise in the UK for international pistol tournaments.

Ms Jowell responded that she has agreed to use her powers under section 5 of the 1968 Firearms Act to allow a small squad of elite GB Olympic pistol shooters to train in this country ahead of the Olympics in 2012. Scottish Ministers have agreed, in principle, to exercise their powers in a similar manner in relation to Scotland. In Northern Ireland, pistol shooters are free to practise their sport, provided that they have the appropriate firearms certificate from the chief constable of the police service of Northern Ireland.

The home secretary will also use her powers under section 5 to ensure arrangements are in place to allow competitors and officials at the Olympic Games in London in 2012 to possess their special competition pistols for the duration of the games and for any special warm-up events.

David Penn, of the British Shooting Sports Council, welcomed the move: ...

You're a Canadian, Mr. K. You must remember these.


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/01/14/tto-shooting.html

John O'Keefe, the second homicide victim of 2008, died early Saturday morning as he headed home from a downtown pub.

According to police, at about 1:30 a.m. two men were kicked out of the Brass Rail strip club on Yonge Street south of Bloor. At about the same time O'Keefe left the nearby Duke of Gloucester pub, also on Yonge Street.

The two men ejected from the club returned and fired shots into a crowd outside, hitting O'Keefe. Seconds later the 42-year-old father was dead on the street.

Det. Sgt. Dan Nielsen said the two men kicked out of the strip club tried to shoot a bouncer and O'Keefe just got in the way.

The guy with the gun - the murderer - had a permit to possess a handgun, which he obtained in the usual way: by becoming a member of a gun club. The permit (i.e. the transporting permit also issued) allowed him to transport the firearm to and from the gun club. Not to and from nightclubs. But look there, that's what he did. A perfectly legal licensed handgun owner, committing the murder of a random passerby on a crowded block of Toronto's busiest pedestrian street, while trying to shoot an employee of an establishment who had perfectly lawfully evicted him from it. Huh, eh? What possible reason could there be not to just let anybody who claims to be a target shooter possess a handgun?


And of course:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2006/09/15/aftermath-shooting.html

Kimveer Gill was obsessed with firearms but followed the rules to legally obtain them, gun enthusiasts who knew him say.

Gill, 25, from Fabreville killed a woman before taking his own life during a shootout with police in the atrium at Montreal's Dawson College on Wednesday. Nineteen other people were injured in the rampage.

Gill was carrying three firearms with him when he entered the college, including a semi-automatic Beretta rifle and a .45-calibre handgun. All three weapons are legal and were registered in his name, Montreal police said.

He used the Beretta to commit the murder (and some very serious injuries) and the handgun to kill himself, as I recall. The Beretta was only in his possession because he had a restricted firearm licence ... because he was a member of a gun club and he did in fact spend time there shooting.


Being a target shooter means you'll never shoot anybody, right? So why would a society ever consider denying access to firearms like that to anybody who says they want to practise target shooting?

Remember what Dunblane (when Thomas Hamilton murdered 16 primary school children and their teacher with four legally-held pistols) and Hungerford (when Michael Ryan killed 16 people and himself with two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun) and the subsequent legislation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7056245.stm
were actually all about? People in LEGAL possession of handguns and semi-automatic firearms using them to KILL PEOPLE.