Toy gun ban: This is pleasantly insane

[Ken Brown]

Declan McCullagh wrote:
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/uk_politics/newsid_1207000/1207355.stm
> 
> Some toy guns could be made illegal if the government goes ahead with its
> intention to ban replica firearms.
> 
> Home Office minister Charles Clarke revealed that such a move was possible
> when he spoke at an exhibition of seized fake weapons, which included
> imitation Uzi machine pistols and an SA-80 assault rifle.
> 
> Such replicas can be bought in shops or by mail order and are frequently used
> by criminals.
> 
> The minister said replicas posed a "real threat" to society.

One of the fun things about reading lists like Cypherpunks is that I get
to see how little most people know about the world outside their own
backyard.  Every time the gun thing comes up some Americans react
incredulously to British laws and we get people predicting that gun laws
over here are about to provoke some sort of libertarian backlash. 

It's not going to happen. Right or wrong, almost everyone in the UK is
in favour of the complete banning of handguns when they think about them
at all.   In fact almost no-one cares, and of those who do care almost
everyone is in favour of the ban. Hemp smoking will be legalised in the
UK before handguns are.  In fact, to be honest, the legalisation of
heroin is less unlikely than handguns (not that either will happen any
time soon). After all more people in Britain use opiates than use guns. 


The view of British society  that you are getting is probably biased by
the people who post in places like this. We get the US just as wrong of
course. The normal British view of the gun laws in the US  (again,
normal amongst the very few who notice or care what goes on in a foreign
country)  is that the majority of reasonable people are somehow being
held to ransom by a tiny "gun lobby" of crazed right-wing fanatics.
People here seem to expect that you will come to your senses one day and
"do something" about the "gun culture". They are typically surprised to
find apparently normal, sane people defending the sale & ownership of
guns.

Ken Brown