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MPs Demand Sales Curbs On Airguns
Sunday Telegraph, UK
19 March 2000
By David Bamber
The number of airguns being sold in Britain will be reduced by up to 70
per cent under proposals to be recommended by a powerful committee of MPs.
The Home Affairs Select Committee will publish a report next month outlining
curbs on the weapons. They believe that the guns are increasingly being used
in robberies and also cost lives as a result of accidents and being misused
by teenagers. MPs also believe that the restrictions on handguns since the
Dunblane massacre has been a success and think that a similar purge
should be aimed at airguns.
Under the proposals all sales of the airguns will be banned from the
internet, and mail-order sales will also be restricted. Another proposal is
for an airgun amnesty, a month long annual event at police stations
during which the public will be asked to surrender the weapons.
The move will cause outrage in country areas where the guns are widely used
in sport. Country dwellers believe their traditional way of life has been
threatened by the collapse in farm prices, the threatened ban on
foxhunting
and the Government’s plans to build new housing estates.
But despite this, MPs are determined to take action to cut the number of
air rifles and air pistols in circulation. There are more than 4.5 million
air rifles in Britain and controls over their sale are limited. At the moment
people buying the weapons have to be over 16, although they can be used,
but not owned, by anyone over 14.
The MPs were shocked by some cases of the guns being responsible for tragic
deaths of teenagers. Last July, George Atkinson, 13, was shot as he
played with his sister and cousins in the garden of their house near Wrexham,
North Wales. He was critically injured when a pellet hit him in the neck and
lodged in his brain.
Also last year, Thomas Stafford, 16, a pupil at Shiplake College, Berkshire,
died from an air rifle pellet. He had been staying at the home of his
sisters boyfriend in Bleasdale, Lancashire, and collapsed with a wound to the
head shortly after he and a gamekeeper had returned from a day’s shooting
with air rifles.
The police also told MPs that they are concerned about guns being used in
crimes. Government figures show that 8,615 criminal offences using airguns
were committed in 1998. The MPs believe that restricting sales to properly
supervised shops and banning other outlets could reduce the numbers of
weapons sold. If no improvement in misuse figures are shown by the
measures,
a licensing scheme could be introduced.
The scheme was inspired early last year by Chris Mullin, the Home Affairs
Select Committee’s then chairman who is now a minister at the Department
of
the Environment, Transport and the Regions. He has been a long-time
campaigner for more controls over airguns. Many changes in the law have
been
inspired by similar reports.
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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
____________________
MPs Demand Sales Curbs On Airguns
Sunday Telegraph, UK
19 March 2000
By David Bamber
The number of airguns being sold in Britain will be reduced by up to 70
per cent under proposals to be recommended by a powerful committee of MPs.
The Home Affairs Select Committee will publish a report next month outlining
curbs on the weapons. They believe that the guns are increasingly being used
in robberies and also cost lives as a result of accidents and being misused
by teenagers. MPs also believe that the restrictions on handguns since the
Dunblane massacre has been a success and think that a similar purge
should be aimed at airguns.
Under the proposals all sales of the airguns will be banned from the
internet, and mail-order sales will also be restricted. Another proposal is
for an airgun amnesty, a month long annual event at police stations
during which the public will be asked to surrender the weapons.
The move will cause outrage in country areas where the guns are widely used
in sport. Country dwellers believe their traditional way of life has been
threatened by the collapse in farm prices, the threatened ban on
foxhunting
and the Government’s plans to build new housing estates.
But despite this, MPs are determined to take action to cut the number of
air rifles and air pistols in circulation. There are more than 4.5 million
air rifles in Britain and controls over their sale are limited. At the moment
people buying the weapons have to be over 16, although they can be used,
but not owned, by anyone over 14.
The MPs were shocked by some cases of the guns being responsible for tragic
deaths of teenagers. Last July, George Atkinson, 13, was shot as he
played with his sister and cousins in the garden of their house near Wrexham,
North Wales. He was critically injured when a pellet hit him in the neck and
lodged in his brain.
Also last year, Thomas Stafford, 16, a pupil at Shiplake College, Berkshire,
died from an air rifle pellet. He had been staying at the home of his
sisters boyfriend in Bleasdale, Lancashire, and collapsed with a wound to the
head shortly after he and a gamekeeper had returned from a day’s shooting
with air rifles.
The police also told MPs that they are concerned about guns being used in
crimes. Government figures show that 8,615 criminal offences using airguns
were committed in 1998. The MPs believe that restricting sales to properly
supervised shops and banning other outlets could reduce the numbers of
weapons sold. If no improvement in misuse figures are shown by the
measures,
a licensing scheme could be introduced.
The scheme was inspired early last year by Chris Mullin, the Home Affairs
Select Committee’s then chairman who is now a minister at the Department
of
the Environment, Transport and the Regions. He has been a long-time
campaigner for more controls over airguns. Many changes in the law have
been
inspired by similar reports.
>++++
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
)...the average folks are pissed. So, the authorities have said that more than half of times a gun is "seen" during a crime it is a fake, toy or airgun. Easy to say if no shots are fired and no gun is captured. This was based on a college study where some prisoners were interviewed and more than half said they always used fake guns. As if they'd confess to using a real gun if they weren't captured with it 
