-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In <Pine.LNX.3.91.970505102129.509B-100000@fatmans.demon.co.uk>, on 05/05/97 at 04:37 AM, Paul Bradley <paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk> said:
A ban on all handguns even when registered (currently all pistols above .22 are banned and all guns have to be registered in a process whereby if the applicant for a certificate has any history of political dissention or crime (eg. Smoking a joint, the ultimate sin against society) the certificate will be refused.
What would be an example of such political dissention?
Well, I`m pretty sure that, having recently been involved in campaigns against the ban on handguns, written to a number of people in positions of power over the proposed TTP scheme in the DTI white paper etc. my firearms licence will not be renewed the next time it comes up for review. The powers that be now presumably see me as a loon.
A damning enditement on the British people is that last time I mentioned to someone my having written to the home office and others over the proposed gun ban I was called a lunatic and told "The sort of person who writes to the home office over something like that is the least suitable to have a gun".
I can assure you this is not a one-off, this happens every time people who don`t shoot find out I do. They have been brainwashed by the tabloid press, for example, the daily mail ran a particularly vitriolic hate campaign against gun owners singling out Albie Fox, leader of the campaign against the ban, and calling him a "Gun obsessed lunatic". This, recall, is the same daily mail which rants every day about the "evil of drugs" and how the only way to "save society" is to throw everyone who doesn`t support their particular brand of bigoted fanaticism into jail for the rest of their life.
And of course, one would imagine that those who actually owned guns and used them for sport themselves would be the most informed people who would realise that the criminal use of guns is at the opposite end of the scale to the sporting use allowed in British law. However, I know several people who have said "I`m happy to give up my guns if it will save lives", to this I simply reply "who were you going to kill?" then walk away, these people don`t even deserve correcting as their bullshit is so deep.
In addition, when the police revoke or refuse to renew a firearms certificate, they do not need to give a reason, so one cannot even prove that it was because of speech or opinions they didn`t like that they revoked the certificate. Even if you could, it is unlikely a challenge in court would succeed, the UK does not have the same free speech guarantees as are given in the US and elsewhere, and any court challenge would fail, of that I am sure.
Also, to worsen the situation, the labour party has now come to power and as I have already explained in a previous post this make matters even worse.
Well wait until after the next elections when we have a Republican administration and apply for political asylum. :) Someday the revolution will come and we can roundup all these bastards for "crimes against Democracy". Anyone for Nurnburg II? -- - ----------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. Finger whgiii@amaranth.com for PGP Key and other info - ----------------------------------------------------------- Tag-O-Matic: If at first you don't succeed, work for Microsoft. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Registered User E-Secure v1.1 ES000000 iQCVAwUBM3CF049Co1n+aLhhAQEm5gQAtPEEiYlY74JxyTlBb3vFj5/bBC5WnyjN GnQV2MCykLVq0Y2KoRNEYXuuuEOwAAm58cdG468RoIKlpR1b88jZy37x9xUVC4U2 DZFUW8GSt3wLA81NCrNAARCCCHAVXMr8l/Ron0otBnPWCGgB2jYh58WZdNA0Cbed JzhOjEgM2w8= =/ZF/ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----