This Is Why The Public Get In A Panic....

[Taff Williams]

Reply sent

Ogri the trog

[mikebike]

There are only 3 replies on that page, I think they are holding back!

[Dirty-Harry]

Sadly this is just the kind of irresponsible 'journalism' that we see after any shooting.
Does anyone recall the furore over shotguns after the 'Black Panther' shot a police officer? That's when shotgun permits became necessary. The odd thing is that he used a revolver!
I'm afraid that when it comes to 'guns' of any type reason and logic (and to a great extent, the truth) are the first casualties.
Even the police are not immune. Shortly after Dunblane all constabularies started to compile records of 'firearms offences'. The vast majority of these 'offences' involved airguns, air-soft, and even plastic toy guns.
A case in point -
A taxi driver was reported to the police for having a firearm in his cab. An armed response vehicle was despatched and the cabbie found himself surrounded by armed officers all pointing their weapons at him and ordering him to get out and lie on the ground. When he had been suitable manacled they proceeded to search his vehicle. They soon found the weapon - it was on the dashboard, after all.
What kind of firearm was it? With it's red muzzle-plug counterpointing the blue plastic it was his 7 year-old son's cap-gun!

[Dave Stringer]

Posted a reply to this article:

Your article regarding "gas cartridge" guns is TOTALLY inaccurate. The only airguns that require a firearms certificate under the new antisocial behaviour bill are the air cartridge guns such as those that were sold by Brocock. The Walther CP88 that you mention is subject to no restrictions under this act. Your contact at Greater manchester Police is also totally incorrect in his statement. It is sensationalist publishing such as yours that drives the anti gun network. We all should be concentrating on the totally illegal use of fully automatic firearms and handguns, both of which are already illegal, by drug dealers and armed robbers. I ask you one question. Will this legislation keep these totally illegal weapons off our streets? The answer, of course, is no, because the people who hold and use these weapons care not one jot about legally held weapons and the law abiding enthusiasts who own them. Please, do two things.
1. Get your facts straight.
2. Publish a retraction and qualify your story.

David Stringer.

It's about the best I can do, but I think it will have little effect. At least we should make the effort.

Dave

[adam_thrower]

I posted my reply. Reckon the chances of it making the web page are slim to none!

A load of toss IMHO

[draftsmann]

My feedback:

This is a cynically dishonest article. The word "loophole" implies a flaw in the law unforeseen by the legislators at the time the law was made. In fact the type of CO2 powered pistol mentioned in the article was subject to an intentional relaxing of the law in Great Britain in 1997, in that the need to hold such guns on a firearms certificate was repealed as unnecessarily draconian in relation to the "lethality" of these guns.

I do not of course expect for one minute that your readers will see you set the facts straight in this matter, such is your business of gutter journalism.

No regards

Adrian Sacco

[adam_thrower]

Originally posted by draftsmann
My feedback:

I do not of course expect for one minute that your readers will see you set the facts straight in this matter, such is your business of gutter journalism.

No regards

Touching

[rarms]

>Linda Mitchell, spokesman for the Gun Control Network


Do they know something we don't

[badgeroy]

REPLIED WITH MY COMMENTS, (TOTAL IGNARAMUS'S)

CHEERS
ROY

[Davestate]

Originally posted by rarms
>Linda Mitchell, spokesman for the Gun Control Network


Do they know something we don't

IT was probably called Lee before IT had the sex op and now can't get a job, hence IT is now an anti with nothing better to do.

BTW, also left my comments, but didn't see any others apart from 3 do gooder's replies.

[AirgunStan]

Here's what I e-mailed to them:

Your article printed on the 03/05/04 headed 'Gun Law Loophole' has been highlighted on an airgunforum on the internet.
It is an inaccurate report.
The ban of self contained air guns relates to those which contain a small charge of air held in a small cartridge which looks almost identical to that of a real bullet. These are called 'Tacs.' A charge of air is forced into these and when hit by the guns hammer releases the small charge of air behind the pellet and thus sending it down the barrel.
The ban relates to these and not airguns which your report spotlights. The airguns which are powered by small CO2 capsules have not been banned. These CO2 capsules are exactly the same as what you use in a soda syphon.

The guns that have been banned with the Tacs - which stands for 'Tandom Air Cartridge System' are in fact not very accurate.
My belief is that they look too much like the real thing - the Tacs look like live ammunition. The actual official line is that the guns are easy to modify into a real firearm. I am informed that this is in fact a nonsense as the structure of the metal in these airguns is not strong enough to withstand the tolerances of firing live ammunition anyway. This was part of the design.

As with any gun or airgun it is only dangerous in the hands of the wrong person.
There are a great many responsible people using airguns safetly and enjoying this challenging sport.

Unfortunately airgun enthusiasts seem to get a lot of 'bad press' which isn't helping or indeed very fair.

Since becoming interested in this activity I have discovered that a wide cross section of society pursue this sport. We are not all hooligans.

In view of what I have explained above I would be grateful if you would print some kind of retraction clarifying the facts.

Thank you.

[Fenman]

I thought the report was standard scaremongering with "Gun" being the keyword for getting public attention. Pretty usual stuff.
Have any of these Mothers against violence (or whatever they're calling themselves this week) lost a son to a CP88?

The press rely on the fact that the general man-in-the-street is unable to differentiate between an airgun and a 'real gun'. Gun is gun, and it sells more copy if the words "maim" and "lethal" are included.

My pet cat is tiger-shaped but I don't blame him for every big cat attack in India.
Same thing.

[CalorGaz]

Originally posted by Fenman

My pet cat is tiger-shaped but I don't blame him for every big cat attack in India.
Same thing.

CLASSIC

CG

[NickNick]

I added my opinion. I wonder if they will actually publish all this dissent ?

Nick.

[malcytull]

I too have put my five eggs in, are golf clubs going onto a lethal weapons category? you could 'ave someones eye out with that!