"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...

Wilbur, Duncan lacks the ability to think out of the box. Exactly why
the Brit's gave up the right to bear arms.

We never had the _right_ to bear arms like in the US constitution.
After the security tightening all licensed holders of shotgun or other gun
permits had to show real need to be allowed to keep them. Reputable gunshop
businesses were forced to close and a couple of owners of them committed
suicide as their livelihood was taken away without compensatioon.
Many shotgun owners like myself voluntarily gave up our shotguns to the
police for destruction because for the sake of the occasional vermin shoot
we could not be arsed to cope with all the bureaucracy. But the criminals
did not give up their guns and gun crime in UK has increased ever since.
All this stems from a dreadful gun massacre in a school by a person against
whom the police had been warned but had failed to act. They had the power
but did not use it.
Then the politicians got into the act because after such a tragedy
politicians feel that they have to be seen to be doing something so they act
to penalise the law abiding population and the criminals carry on and
progress.
Politicians are the same everywhere. Not my favourite kind of people.

Edgar wrote:
We never had the _right_ to bear arms like in the US constitution.

Edgar,
If I remember my High School history going back a few centuries, English
Common Law gave you the "right" to keep and bear arms. Politicians
relatively recently took that right away from you.
A common misconception is that our Constitution grants us rights, but it
was written in a vain effort to help protect the rights we already had -
quite a lot of which was adopted from Common Law. And like your
politicians, all of our's will do whatever it takes to take away our
rights as evidenced by the very large number of attempts starting from
the time the Constitution was ratified and since. But since we tend to
be more stubborn than you it will take them only slightly longer.
Don't know if you have the same problem over there, but here we have a
gazillion judges, including members of the Supreme Court, that believe
the function of the court is to cicumvent the lawmakers (who are
criminal enough) by legislating from the bench to take our rights away.
Red

"Edgar" wrote in message
...

"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...

We never had the _right_ to bear arms like in the US constitution.
After the security tightening all licensed holders of shotgun or other gun
permits had to show real need to be allowed to keep them. Reputable
gunshop businesses were forced to close and a couple of owners of them
committed suicide as their livelihood was taken away without
compensatioon.
Many shotgun owners like myself voluntarily gave up our shotguns to the
police for destruction because for the sake of the occasional vermin shoot
we could not be arsed to cope with all the bureaucracy. But the criminals
did not give up their guns and gun crime in UK has increased ever since.

So you'd rather have the US system? Look at the figures and think about it.
The British health system is flawed too but would you want to swap it for
the US one?

"JohnM" wrote in message
...

"Edgar" wrote in message
...

"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...

We never had the _right_ to bear arms like in the US constitution.
After the security tightening all licensed holders of shotgun or other
gun permits had to show real need to be allowed to keep them. Reputable
gunshop businesses were forced to close and a couple of owners of them
committed suicide as their livelihood was taken away without
compensatioon.
Many shotgun owners like myself voluntarily gave up our shotguns to the
police for destruction because for the sake of the occasional vermin
shoot we could not be arsed to cope with all the bureaucracy. But the
criminals did not give up their guns and gun crime in UK has increased
ever since.

So you'd rather have the US system? Look at the figures and think about
it.
The British health system is flawed too but would you want to swap it for
the US one?

No, I would not prefer the US system. I would have preferred that the
British police left people alone who were law-abiding citizens using guns
for sport, and wish that when they were advised that one of these citizens
is developing worrying behaviour patterns they had taken appropriate action
which would have saved many children and one teacher's lives.
As to the health service, no. I would not swap the British one for the US
system but the British one is heavily flawed by excessive bureaucracy. They
should let the medical staff ahve more power and should never have got rid
of the famous post of Matron who had total control of nursing and what went
on in the wards. Now even cleaning is contracted out and you stand a good
chance of contracting MRSA bugs in the hospitals.
My wife and I got fed up with the situation successive governments have
brought to the UK. It is unrecognisable as the country I was brought up in
and accordingly at a somewhat advanced age we emigrated four years ago to a
country where everything still works like clockwork and the health service
puts that of the UK to shame. Since we came here four years ago I have not
once been back.