12-04-2009, 07:52 AM
Bruce & David
I'm afraid you will not find much support on either side of the political spectrum over here for gun ownership - even of the sporting variety - let alone licensed handguns, among our docile and fearful population. That applies perhaps especially on the so called 'Left' too. Our actual gun laws are probably THE most extreme on the entire planet such that even Olympic sportmen are not allowed to own or keep single-shot pistols and have to travel to France, Germany, wherever to practice. The absurdity of it all is breathtaking. As with the so called 'terrorist threat' our MSM are constantly winding everyone up about 'Gun Crime' (Though just lately 'Knife crime' has eclipsed it somewhat). Kill somebody with your bare hands or a hammer and you might expect the normal sentence tariff for murder or manslaughter. Use a gun and you can forget normality or any possibility of future parole. Paranoia about guns is a staple of Establishment propaganda and the public appear to lap it up. It produces some heart-rendingly unjust results too. Here is an example that struck very close to me:
The husband of one of my wife's work colleagues was a gamekeeper with 2 teenage sons. He had never had a conviction of any sort. In 2007 he was falsely accused of killing badgers by the RSPCA who succeeded in getting the police to investigate. During the investigation his house was searched (In the very thorough and destructive way they do these days given half a chance) and an 'illegally held' handgun found. The police conceded that there was no case to answer on the badger killing allegation but charged him with illegal possession of a firearm. In August last year he was given 3 YEARS IN PRISON. Sentencing him, the judge exercised 'maximum judicial discretion' in reducing the sentence from the mandatory 5 years because he accepted that the weapon had been inherited from a relative who had kept it following demobilisation after WW2 and that there was no evidence of it's ever having been fired or any criminal intent beyond simple possession - And the guy was supposed to be grateful!
Well, he wasn't because, before the trial, at which he pleaded guilty, he had secreted some strychnine in his sock. After sentence, when he had been taken down to the holding cells, he asked for a cup of tea. Left alone with it, he took the strychnine and died.
I guarantee not 1 person in 10 million of our population knows or has read about that - because it has simply not been reported anywhere - even our local paper. It is a guilty little secret you see. We can't have the details of how a 'salt-of-the-earth' family man who had harmed nobody, dealt with state persecution in the only way he felt left to him now can we?
'Move along there obedient little sheeple - nothing to see here - and don't forget, Big Brother is watching you'
Here are about the only references you will find on the web.
http://tinyurl.com/679uzf
http://tinyurl.com/6gf6cu
http://tinyurl.com/58kwe6
The truly bizarre thing is that the mass of the population seem to find this police-state prison that has been relentlessly fashioned for us is somehow normal - they seem to have this overwhelming need to be protected from the baddies and the baddies seem to be everywhere everywhere
I'm afraid you will not find much support on either side of the political spectrum over here for gun ownership - even of the sporting variety - let alone licensed handguns, among our docile and fearful population. That applies perhaps especially on the so called 'Left' too. Our actual gun laws are probably THE most extreme on the entire planet such that even Olympic sportmen are not allowed to own or keep single-shot pistols and have to travel to France, Germany, wherever to practice. The absurdity of it all is breathtaking. As with the so called 'terrorist threat' our MSM are constantly winding everyone up about 'Gun Crime' (Though just lately 'Knife crime' has eclipsed it somewhat). Kill somebody with your bare hands or a hammer and you might expect the normal sentence tariff for murder or manslaughter. Use a gun and you can forget normality or any possibility of future parole. Paranoia about guns is a staple of Establishment propaganda and the public appear to lap it up. It produces some heart-rendingly unjust results too. Here is an example that struck very close to me:
The husband of one of my wife's work colleagues was a gamekeeper with 2 teenage sons. He had never had a conviction of any sort. In 2007 he was falsely accused of killing badgers by the RSPCA who succeeded in getting the police to investigate. During the investigation his house was searched (In the very thorough and destructive way they do these days given half a chance) and an 'illegally held' handgun found. The police conceded that there was no case to answer on the badger killing allegation but charged him with illegal possession of a firearm. In August last year he was given 3 YEARS IN PRISON. Sentencing him, the judge exercised 'maximum judicial discretion' in reducing the sentence from the mandatory 5 years because he accepted that the weapon had been inherited from a relative who had kept it following demobilisation after WW2 and that there was no evidence of it's ever having been fired or any criminal intent beyond simple possession - And the guy was supposed to be grateful!
Well, he wasn't because, before the trial, at which he pleaded guilty, he had secreted some strychnine in his sock. After sentence, when he had been taken down to the holding cells, he asked for a cup of tea. Left alone with it, he took the strychnine and died.
I guarantee not 1 person in 10 million of our population knows or has read about that - because it has simply not been reported anywhere - even our local paper. It is a guilty little secret you see. We can't have the details of how a 'salt-of-the-earth' family man who had harmed nobody, dealt with state persecution in the only way he felt left to him now can we?
'Move along there obedient little sheeple - nothing to see here - and don't forget, Big Brother is watching you'
Here are about the only references you will find on the web.
http://tinyurl.com/679uzf
http://tinyurl.com/6gf6cu
http://tinyurl.com/58kwe6
The truly bizarre thing is that the mass of the population seem to find this police-state prison that has been relentlessly fashioned for us is somehow normal - they seem to have this overwhelming need to be protected from the baddies and the baddies seem to be everywhere everywhere
Peter Presland
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn
[/SIZE][/SIZE]
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn
[/SIZE][/SIZE]