It seems that legal gun ownership is on the rise. More and more people are seeing that guns are not something to avoid but a valuable tool and either using them for vermin control and other farming activities or sporting use such as target shooting or just plinking. Only a few weeks ago I fired more than 500 shots at vermin and targets over a weekend and only stopped when I ran out of ammo.
I was curious about two things.
- Why was this data only England and Wales? What do the figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland show?
- Why does the picture on the front show revolvers and semi automatic pistols when only those with very serious clout or plod have any? Most, by a long way, firearm license holders on that list won’t have any.
It is because people are looking at taking guns up as a sport or they are looking at taking up hunting or vermin control or it is something else? We will never know. Although you will note that shotgun licenses have not recovered to pre 1997 levels although firearm licenses have. Strange that.
I wonder how many illegal guns there are out there? It doesn’t seem to say in the article for some reason.
1.
Remember that the UK is a country of three countries and a province (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). As a result some things (such as firearms ownership) still experiences different laws depending on which of these four you are in. Scotland has different rules for ownership of firearms and therefore a different body is responsible for collecting the statistics.
To expect two different government bodies to talk to each other and publish the information together is too much to ask.
I suspect it’s very difficult to get a (legal) firearm in Northern Ireland.
2.
Most of the general (ignorant) public think revolver or semi-automatic when you say ‘gun’ so the picture on the front (no doubt subcontracted at a small fortune to a publishing consultant) shows what people think of an ‘iconic’ gun even when this type isn’t actually a realistic example of general ownership.
Skvez,
1 Must be my paranoid nature. You could be right about the agencies. Our government could not organise a whelk stall.
2 It is typical of the media. That is why they are dying out. Good riddance.
In Norther Ireland you can legally own cartridge revolvers/pistols…not here though!
Seem strange but it’s true.
Joe.
I guess they wouldn’t give them up because of the violence. Good for them.