Great Britain's Gun Laws

[jesskayding]

Ok there is some confusion about John being legally? Able to carry a hand gun. As well as Major Sholto. The US is under scrutiny per our Losey Goosey gun laws. I thought it was near impossible for a citizen to legally own a gun in England.

 

Could someone clarify?

[besleybean]

Maybe not ex-servicemen and for ceremonial purposes.

John shouldn't be carrying it around!

[jesskayding]

Yeah, so that's what's confusing, for the most part he's not ok with breaking the law, but he walks around with his hand gun, not only that in some scenes, for example in HOB he shot that dig. So then I guess we are suppose to infer that Lestrade just turns his head & ignores the fact that John is carrying a gun illegally?

[Arcadia]

Yes, I guess so ... it's no harder to swallow than all bombs having off switches!

[besleybean]

Tee Hee.

[jesskayding]

Yeah. Is that really true? I guess maybe they would, just in case terrorist decide to go a different direction. But then you have bombs that aren't connected technologically. They're like ignited via dynamite?

 

Yeah I did question that as well. Well thank goodness that one had an off switch?!?!

[Carol the Dabbler]

I've read that it's mostly handguns that are tightly controlled in the UK.  Apparently ordinary adults can own rifles (though I read that in a book, so things may have changed since it was published).

 

[besleybean]

Yes. gun clubs can hold weapons, farmers and landowners can own shot guns.

Individuals can keep  rifles at home, with a licence and they have to be kept in a locked cabinet, only rernoved to clean or to take to a licensed club or private land.

[Arcadia]

That's the legality ... but does everyone just go ahead and own a handgun anyway, as Sherlock would have you believe? In the U.S. you're not supposed to have alcoholic beverages in national parks, but "everyone" does. Is it like that?

[Caya]

Have some statistics. This site estimates that it's about 6.7 firearms (both licit and illicit) per 100 civilians. Just for comparison, the same site gives a figure of 101.5 per 100 civilians for the US.

[Arcadia]

Wow. I am embarrassed for my people. (But not, alas, surprised.)

 

So ... Sholto, John, Mary, Henry Knight, Irene ... and that's just Sherlock's circle of "friends", which is considerably less than 100.... Add in the assorted snipers and Chinese generals and I'd say this show has more than reached it's allotted number of gun owners. I suppose it's too much to hope they'll stop there....

[Carol the Dabbler]

Have some statistics. This site estimates that it's about 6.7 firearms (both licit and illicit) per 100 civilians. Just for comparison, the same site gives a figure of 101.5 per 100 civilians for the US.

 

 

Zowie -- guess I'd better run right out and get my 1.015 guns!

 

Lest you non-US folks think of this country as one big Hollywood shoot-'em-up -- well, I'm trying to remember the last time I actually saw a gun.  Oh, right, the fellow next door goes hunting, so I occasionally see him head out with his rifle or shotgun.  Other than that, well, hardly ever.

 

The frontier isn't that far behind us (my mother was apparently conceived in a log cabin -- honest!), so especially in more rural areas, there's still a self-sufficiency ethic.  This includes some people hunting wild game for food, and some keeping a gun stored away in case it's ever needed to protect their family.  Target practice of various types is a fairly common sport.  I took rifle lessons as a Girl Scout.

[Arcadia]

Yeah, yeah. Don't you listen to her folks, the bullets be a-flyin' like a swarm of locusts! That's why everyone has guns, because, obviously, nothing deters bullets better than firing more bullets...

 

Seriously; they used to let hunters use the woods across the road from us. There were 3 fatal hunting accidents in about as many years, one involving a child. Other than that, it's pretty quiet out here.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Good Lord, what kind of idiots are you living around?  Oh, wait a minute -- you're in the DC area.  Never mind!

 

[jesskayding]

Wow. I am embarrassed for my people. (But not, alas, surprised.)

 

So ... Sholto, John, Mary, Henry Knight, Irene ... and that's just Sherlock's circle of "friends", which is considerably less than 100.... Add in the assorted snipers and Chinese generals and I'd say this show has more than reached it's allotted number of gun owners. I suppose it's too much to hope they'll stop there....

 

It does seem that Irene obeyed the gun law fully. It was locked away. Not her fault Sherlock cracked her safe.

[jesskayding]

Good Lord, what kind of idiots are you living around? Oh, wait a minute -- you're in the DC area. Never mind!

[jesskayding]

Yeah here in the good ole US of A you can just put your gun in a drawer for anyone to access. Hence our quarterly CNN updates of parents getting shot by their child out of anger because they didn't like their punishment or new rules.

[Arcadia]

Good Lord, what kind of idiots are you living around?  Oh, wait a minute -- you're in the DC area.  Never mind!

Yep, you got it in one!

[Zain]

Have some statistics. This site estimates that it's about 6.7 firearms (both licit and illicit) per 100 civilians. Just for comparison, the same site gives a figure of 101.5 per 100 civilians for the US.

 

 

Sounds about right to me. If I am not mistaken, it's about the rough estimate in Germany, too. The website cites a higher rate, around 30.3 per 100 people. But if I remember correctly from a report, this count is the one which still includes the enormous amount of missing weapons from WWII, which are rotting in some cellar corner in a lot of households. I once heard that about half of all weapons from back then disappeared and their numbers are officially still in the records. The licensed guns are at a about 2,4 per 100 people, with the registered ones at 8,7 per 100. You can imagine how often people still find weapons somewhere in their parents' houses when their parents die and they have to sort through the inherited possessions. I myself remember two relatives which had this (un)pleasant experience and the moment of complete bewilderment: What to do with that thing? My aunt was worrying for days, because the secretary on the phone told her to just bring the gun over to the competent authority. Which meant walking into a building carrying a gun in a bag. She thought she'd be mistaken for a terrorist.

 

I guess about 6-7 % is the rate you will get if there's tight(er) law regulation. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

What to do with that thing? My aunt was worrying for days, because the secretary on the phone told her to just bring the gun over to the competent authority. Which meant walking into a building carrying a gun in a bag. She thought she'd be mistaken for a terrorist.

 

The local bank here has a sign at the door telling you don't come in wearing a hat -- not that it's bad manners, just that it might hide one's face from the security cameras. So yes, I can just imagine walking into a police station with a gun.  (That's kinda funny, actually, if you're not in the situation.)

 

Let's see -- I think I'd pack it into a box and tape the box shut good and proper.  That way no one could tell it was a gun until I'd already turned it over to them.

 

[jesskayding]

Uhm. I would straight up tell the secretary... Nope. Get the police to come pick it up please.

[Caya]

 

What to do with that thing? My aunt was worrying for days, because the secretary on the phone told her to just bring the gun over to the competent authority. Which meant walking into a building carrying a gun in a bag. She thought she'd be mistaken for a terrorist.

 

The local bank here has a sign at the door telling you don't come in wearing a hat -- not that it's bad manners, just that it might hide one's face from the security cameras. So yes, I can just imagine walking into a police station with a gun.  (That's kinda funny, actually, if you're not in the situation.)

 

Let's see -- I think I'd pack it into a box and tape the box shut good and proper.  That way no one could tell it was a gun until I'd already turned it over to them.

 

Those kind of stories are funny in hindsight, but not so much right when they're happening . When I was 18, my parents and I were planning a trip to California, and back then you needed a tourist visa. Since I was going downtown to Uni anyway, my mom asked me to drop our applications at the US embassy. So I went to my lecture and then stopped by the embassy, where I was baffled but not alarmed to be required to walk through a metal detector and hand over my book bag for inspection (practically unheard of in sleepy 80s' Vienna), all of this under the watchful eyes of a guard with an intimidating-looking rifle (think that was the first time I'd ever seen a real gun).

 

I shrugged, handed over the bag and stepped through the detector - and almost froze as I remembered that I was right in the middle of a real-time LARP game and therefore still had my water pistol in the bag (never knew when you were going to be ambushed by an assassin trying to soak you ). Now it was only a water pistol, but it was black and sure looked like the real deal, and had the weight too when full, like right now. I had a very intense second of rising panic - which ended abruptly as the bag handler gave my bag to me and went through the next one .

 

I stood there for a second, unbelieving - he hadn't found the thing? Briefly I contemplated telling them that their security measures weren't particularly effective, but then thought the better of pulling a black gun out of my bag while that guy with the real gun was standing there watching, and meekly went to hand over our applications .

[Arcadia]

LOL! I had something similar happen, except that it was a knife (an artist's knife) that I forgot was in my backpack until it was halfway through the airport scanner. I was amazed when it didn't set of any alarms. I had the same reaction you did, Martina; I was on the verge of pointing out their oversight, but quickly thought better of it!

 

That was before 9/11 though; the same thing happened a year or two after 9/11, except that it was a Swiss Army knife (a little petite girly version) that my brother had given me before he passed away. Immense sentimental value, but it didn't make it through security. These days I would have been allowed to mail it back to myself (or so I hear), but back then they just grabbed it and tossed it into a HUGE pile of other stuff they had confiscated.

[Carol the Dabbler]

That's so sad, Arcadia!  They're a lot less fussy about really small knives these days, I think.  But back a few (ten?) years, my cousin and I wanted to go into the local courthouse to see some old photos on display (including one of our great-grandfather's house), and the guard wouldn't let me in because I had a folding knife with a whopping 1-1/2" (4 cm) blade on my keychain.  Fortunately we were able to walk back to her car, leave the wicked weapon, then return to the courthouse -- so I still have it.

 

[jesskayding]

You non violent people walking around with pocket knives. Mmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmmm ^_^