Self Defence UK.

Scouse
The element of British laws that I find difficult to understand, is that it is illegal to keep any item for the specific purpose of self defence. As I understand it, that forethought means it is not in the eyes of the law a defensive weapon, but an offensive one, rendering it illegal and its use enough to send you to prison
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As I understand it, this is no different to the U.S. You can legally open carry in some states under state law, and under federal law in all states (the Constitution) as long as the gun/knife/whatever is not interpreted/intended as a lethal weapon. If stopped by LEO and asked "Why are you carrying that?" The appropriate answer is "Because I have a constitutional right allowing me to do so". The minute you say "Officer, it's for self defense" the game changes and you are in possession of a lethal weapon. Similar applies to sprays and tasers under offensive weapons. I believe that under both federal and state laws it is unlawful to be in possession of either a lethal or offensive weapon.

CCP/CWP however are entitled to possess said weapons purely for the purpose of self defense.

I am not a lawyer... These are the impressions I have been led to believe over the years.

Also let's put to rest the notion that guns are banned in the U.K. They are not, but they are very strictly controlled. I am a British citizen and grew up there. I lived on a farm in the west country for a long time. If you want or need a firearm or shotgun (those are two different tickets) badly enough you can legally have one. It will take a bit of planning, hand-shaking and reasoning though.

In England they have a law against "Going equipped for crime". A hammer can fall into this category. That law is no different to any law (Except CWP/CCP) in the United States. Tell a cop you have a hammer to defend yourself and you will be arrested.

-SS-
 
I see what you are saying Sweet Shooter. To be honest, I was more referring to ownership at home rather than carrying in public, though I see I didn't make it necessarily obvious that is what I was saying.

Personally I would not advocate the law allowing public carry of firearms for defence, concealed or otherwise, in the UK. Many here will disagree and I respect their right to do so, it is a point of view I understand and mine is not a position reached at all lightly.

My understanding of the situation in the USA is that in a person's home, one may have and keep in whatever condition whatever not otherwise banned items one wishes for the express purposes of self defence (which by definition is lawful, otherwise it is no longer self defence) or indeed any other lawful purpose. That is not the case in the UK, as in reality the heavy blunt instrument (something with another purpose, like a hammer or sports equipment if the person has any sense) many family men keep near their bed is actually illegal as it is kept as a weapon.

Like I said before, that is how I understand the law here anyway, I would quite like to be told I have it wrong.

You are quite right, the notion that guns are illegal in the UK is just plain wrong. The West Country is a beautiful part of the world, love the landscape round there.
 
Some information regards personal protection weapons in N Ireland.
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As someone pointed out earlier, not sure what laws in N. Ireland have to do with the U.K.? From my understanding they are widely different.
 
Northern Ireland is part of the UK, as are England, Wales, and Scotland IIRC. So they aren't widely different.

However, there do appear to be exceptions particular to Northern Ireland.
 
As Mleake points out, the full name of the country is The United Kingdom of Great Britain (a geographical term for the bigger of the islands that contains England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland.

NI is part of the UK. The reason it has laws that are substantially different is that there has been a war being fought for much of the last 40 years. While this war has spilled bloodily out into both the Republic of Ireland (separate country) and the rest of the UK and elsewhere, most of the violence was kept to the small area of Northern Ireland. Hence the police permitting handguns to be kept and carried for personal protection.

Crankgrinder: with respect mate, you clearly know very little of my country. It is oh so easy to bleat that we are subjects and it is all about the Queen . . . it isn't, the British monarch has been beholden to parliament for centuries, they are politically irrelevant figureheads, they control nothing beyond what they eat for breakfast. I strongly suspect actually, that given the choice, most of the royals would be all about liberalising gun laws. Rant over.
 
My impressions of Britain are based on a vist there last year, which included a driving tour through parts of the country. I never saw any reason to think the country is less safe than anywhere in the United States and probably more so than some places. On the other hand, I'm really a city boy and feel at home in crowded places, notwithstanding times I've lived in very different places.

Britain is far more varied than one might think, though that is true of many other places, too. I drove through places that were scarcely any different than driving through Virginia. I also drove through areas that were decidedly bleak and were populated with more sheep than people. I also saw a lot of firearms, though none in private hands. Don't seen any of those around here, either, for that matter. I saw more armed policemen than I ever see here, so all that business of unarmed policemen is rubbish.

They do, however, eat strange things for breakfast, but sausages and mash fits my tastes just fine for dinner. And while the language is, in theory, the same and we can read what each other writes, mostly, I had a lot of trouble understanding people until we were in The North.

Easily the biggest difference between the two countries, ours and theirs, is that we do not have anything like an English pub, except in Pennsylvania.
 
BlueTrain: did you actually try any of the black pudding?

If not, I assure you, it is superb with eggs!

Also, to keep this firearms rather than breakfast related - our coppers are still generally unarmed, despite the vast number of carbine toting armed response officers lurking around transport hubs and whatever is deemed to be a likely terrorist target.
 
Nope, nor did I see any. Baked beans, yes! But you may be surprised at some of the things Americans eat, even though most things here were brought over from the old country and that's still happening. Most of the time, however, once it reaches the shelf of the local Safeway, it's lost something. Even native American stuff somehow becomes homoginized in the process. They even make tortillas (they're from Mexico, which in North America) from wheat flour!

I agree that most of the armed police that I noticed were around "important" places and they generally also carried a submachine gun and were wearing body armo(u)r. But I saw gun magazines on the shelf at the newstand.
 
Quote. I agree that most of the armed police that I noticed were around "important" places and they generally also carried a submachine gun and were wearing body armo(u)r. But I saw gun magazines on the shelf at the newstand.

You seem surprised that you saw gun magazines in the UK. We have gun shops as well. I could go to one tomorrow and buy, or if not in stock order any hand gun i wanted.
 
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Ahh, I always assume it is the black pudding that freaks visitors out a bit. I have sampled some fine Southern (US that is) cuisine in Tennessee. I know this, if I lived there, I would be rather larger than I am now.

The gun magazines cater to the relatively small, by comparison, but active shooting community in this country, we most definitely exist!
 
Sorry about all that Scouse, it was more of a joke for me. All joking aside I very much wish that people in the UK had more freedom reguarding firearms and general self defense as a whole. Being from Texas people being prosecuted for protecting themselves based on technicalities is indeed dumbfounding to me. Gives me a sick feeling to think of it. Makes me happy to be where i am .
 
Apology accepted. Big of you to do so when you can easily not on the internet. Hear that stuff quite a lot to be honest, and can be easily wound up by it at times.

There are definitely things about the way you do things in your part of the world that appeal. Generally, I think we get a pretty good, common sense approach from the law . . . just occasionally we disagree with the law itself.
 
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