Should the UK public have the right to bear arms?

You GrahamS, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Just because they’re called the Eagles of Death Metal, doesn’t make them death metal

thisisnotaspoon – Member

You GrahamS, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Just because they’re called the Eagles of Death Metal, doesn’t make them death metal

Or Eagles!

You might need to narrow that down a bit chakaping, one way or the other.

Sorry – the OP obviously, and people speculating about what would have happened in the totally hypothetical situation of people being allowed to take handguns into rock concerts.

I don’t usually bother taking people to task for bad taste on the internet, but my mind is boggling.

I think the key mistake the you’re making here is the belief that the UK, US or any other public should have the right to bear arms is simply ridiculous – the public as a whole is made up of A-holes, idiots and reactionary nutters.

However, on the specific issue on whether *I* should have the right to bear arms, I feel completely differently, and if I had the money would happily become a full on collector of interesting armaments – in fact I would gladly have an atom bomb in my living room as a focal point to stare at, polish and cuddle before going to bed instead of the Telly (I’d keep the detonator in my gun cabinet, obviously)

Just think of all the ‘What grips for my bear arms?’ threads, please no 😯

Gunz – Member
Well best of luck to you if/when such attacks happen again and you have nothing to hand to defend yourselves with.
Even those that are specifically armed and charged with shooting terrorists undergo extensive training and conduct rigorous planning before acting. Joe Public would end up either shooting themselves, the wrong person or getting killed and gifting the terrorist another weapon. I don’t believe a single mass shooting in the US has been stopped by any armed member of the public.
Best defence – hide or run like f##k.

This

When I was in the Air Force I had a go in a simulator room that mimiced terrorist tactics, I clearly new something was going to happen and yet I only managed to get one round off and missed the terrorist by a good margin (the birds in the trees were in more danger). Out of the whole group in the lesson only two of us actually fired our weapons and everyone of us would have been shot by the terrorists.
Against highly motivated and trained people you would not stand a chance.

*applauds*

Pretty much summed me up perfectly!

No

Do you really want a largely untrained civilian population to have easy access to firearms? There’s enough neuroses around with highly trained policemen being armed!

but who would sell them to us?

Walmart clearly like wot they do in US of A! Bearing in mind that means Asda over here, the chances of them actually working are mercifully slim.

Should we have the right to bear arms? No (thread closed). There is absolutely no evidence to suggest it might even vaguely be a good idea.

A bit of talk about ‘highly trained’ policemen. My son was doing PE at school when this happened…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-34781021

He was just behind the Police marksman who was given the duty of putting down the beast. A ‘Watch this boys’ was followed by a ‘hasta la vista, baby’ and the sniper took aim, fired and missed! Took him a furher 3 shots to actually hit the animal (in the leg) which hobbled about for an hour or so before collapsing.

Highly trained my arse! (and this is the PSNI who have probably fired more shots than most police this side of the Atlantic).

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The amount of hours i’ve had to put into firearms training to get competent borders on sad. It would genuinely scare me to know other people are walking around with firearms with minimal training.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-34748783

Erm no

Once the magazine is empty they are un-armed and at that point the numbers game changes and they are very vulnerable.

Cool, in the event that we’re in a terrorist attack together you can jump up and rush them from 100yds away in the 4 seconds it takes to reload. I’ll stay down in the cellar.

Highly trained my arse! (and this is the PSNI who have probably fired more shots than most police this side of the Atlantic).

Still probably a better shot than you with more training……

Still probably a better shot than you with more training……

Who knows. I’ve only ever shot a gun once. I managed to hit the target – it was a small bird and it died, which made me realise that guns weren’t as cool as i thought they were and i swore i’d never fire a gun again. However, I’d like to think that with some training i could hit something as big as a deer without too much trouble.

Once the magazine is empty they are un-armed and at that point the numbers game changes and they are very vulnerable.

Er, hold on, let me think about that….

So, you let them empty their weapons, then shoot back. You have a load of dead victims plus 4 dead gunmen. Where is that a different outcome?

It’s bad enough that most people are allowed to drive a car. Giving them guns as well would be insane!

However, I’d like to think that with some training i could hit something as big as a deer without too much trouble.

Maybe…

Maybe not…

Till you get the chance to prove it you’re really just talking a load of pish.

I’d like to think that with some training i could hit something as big as a deer without too much trouble.

Just shooting and Hitting them is fairly easy

Finding them, then being in a position to shoot them safely, and hitting them in the right place to do it humanely, repeatedly, in differing conditions, is somewhat more difficult – and even then it sometimes goes wrong.

Maybe…

Maybe not…

Till you get the chance to prove it you’re really just talking a load of pish.

I completely agree but it’s just shooting a gun. I really can’t see how hard it would be to get good at it with some practice. In saying that, i’m aware that this place is populated by the type that require a ‘skills courses’ for something so simple as riding a bike, so maybe something relatively simple to the average co-ordinated human being is deemed the impossible on here 😀

Just shooting and Hitting them is fairly easy

Finding them, then being in a position to shoot them safely, and hitting them in the right place to do it humanely, repeatedly, in differing conditions, is somewhat more difficult – and even then it sometimes goes wrong.

Exactly. It wasn’t in the wild and it didn’t need tracked down, it was walking across their rugby pitch in daylight on a calm afternoon. I don’t think you’d get an easier shot tbh. Maybe the marksman took his eye off the ball as there was no real pressure? I don’t know but my son wasn’t impressed with his ‘dope gun skillz’.

Once the magazine is empty the shooter reloads while his mate stops or slows his rate of fire to cover him , if lawyers welders and middle management bods playing paintball can acquire that tactic by osmosis before they ever turn up to play paintball I am confident terrorists who have had time to train or plan will also know how to reload without exposure to being rushed.

In America, ten times more people were shot with legally owned guns during an argument than used a gun to stop a crime. For each gun that’s used for self defence in the home, there were seven murders or assaults, eleven suicide attempts and four accidents, all using guns. 40% of criminals that used guns in their crimes bought their guns legally (and obviously being able to acquire guns illegally is far, far easier).

I’d rather live in a society that bans widespread gun ownership and suffers the occasional terrorist atrocity than live in one where spree killings happen on a weekly basis and just plain ‘ol regular murder many times on a daily basis.

Do you remember why we banned handguns? Dunblane/Hungerford?

I live in the US. My middle school (11-14) kids are trained in what to do if there is an active shooter in the school. There have been 52 school/college shootings this year, leaving 30 dead.

I’ll take the risks of terrorism over an excessively armed population with poor/non-existent mental health care, shoddy background checks and a shortsighted obsession with selective constitutional rights any day.

No No No. It’s bad enough with all the keyboard warriors…including myself 🙂

Euro – Member
My son was doing PE at school when this happened…

…I don’t think you’d get an easier shot tbh.

looks like a nightmare to me:

#The animal was running around, scared and flighty, expecting trouble.

#There were buildings all around – ideally you’d have an earth bank/hillside behind the target.

an easy one to get very wrong.