Sign up to let the brits have .22 hand guns

[rodfair]

I signed!

[Corrado]

I signed!

Well done that man!

[chrismetallica1]

Sounds like the way (as I understand it) the same way that you folks lost your rights. The shotgunners and rifle guys stood by while handguns were banned as it didn't concern them, then the shotgunners watched the rifle rights go away because it didn't affect their manner of shooting. Divide and conquer is a tried and true playbook for centuries. To reverse it, all of the various disciplines will need to support one another and regain those liberties one at a time, step by step. Best wishes for a string of small victories which add up.

You pretty much summed it up there. The major organisations still had lots of Rifle shooters and shotgunners. They all still felt hard done to after the 1887 restrictions after the Hungerford Massacre. The ristrictions put in place in 1987 effectivly banned semi-auto center fire long guns and restricted shotguns to a maximum of 3 shots unless they were registed as FAC (something that at the that time was hard to do) The apathy of other shooting organisations made it easier for the governmanet to bring in the ban. That fuled with the press and the 1997 Dunblane Massacre. No shooting organisation was going to stick its neck out and argue when the counter argument was 15 dead school children. Other things helped the ban .It was an election year and nothing wins votes like telling the public your making them safer. There was no public enquiry into the Dunblane Massacre. Had there been at the time it would have been in the press that the police had been informed on numerouse occasions the shooter was not suitable to be in possetion of firearms . The initial ban was just centerfire handguns but they the wrong party won the election and repealed that part of the act. We all know now that the ban did nothing for gun crime as they said it iw ould. As it was as only law abiding people handed theres in. The criminals still had them or obtained them illegaly. Infact stats show gun crime has stedily increased every year since the ban. There were discussions last year in regards of pistol shooting as UK has the olympics and the team GB were travling abroad to practice. However this was soon put on the back burner after the Cumbria shootings. Unfortunatly you cant legislate against nutters but the actions of one have a deep impact on all other law abiding shooters. One day the UK may get handguns back however in the current climate I cant see it happening any time soon

[Corrado]

Chris got it right on the nail there.