Firepower wrote
Point taken Tom but I seriously disagree when it comes to shooting. I am no danger to anyone at all and feel that kowtowing to the media just plays into the hands of the PTB. Unless we stand up for what we believe in we will ultimately be steamrollered into oblivion.
Just to be clear, I was talking about the public perception, not mine, I do not feel that you or any other shooting enthusiast I have been debating with is a danger, indeed all that is in danger from the likes of us are proper inanimate targets, vermin (of the animal/bird kind) and game animals/birds.
To the original question I currently think yes it should be possible but with propper education and recognised qualification, along with secure sensible storage.
To further gun restrictions a resounding no.
To reversing some if not all of the knee jerk restrictions and bans in the UK since Hungerford/Dunblane yes even if it means training and arming designated teachers librarians and other supervisory staff, along with the arming of police, although I see no reason for the magazine to be actually in the gun until a potential situation occurs, I may go so far as to say a trigger locking device too, all to minimise the chances of imediate missuse if it fell into the wrong hands.
The nutters take advantage in the USA of places which are as wide open to such attack as practicly everywhere in Britain is (unless you're royal, a politician, or a soldier), historically dissarment of any kind has not really decreased the chances of war, we banned chemical weapons in WW1 so invented nuclear ones instead, we didn't blow each other up in the cold war because it was sensless, so why do we think that dissarming all of us will prevent tragedy, some say attack is the best form of defence, yet in our world we are seriously considering dissarming all but the bad guys?
If we ever do encounter troubles and only those outside the law are armed well, what woud be the consequences? the world post WW2 has been as stable as it was going to get, we all shake our heads and say "only in America" when certian things happen, yet unless they change to something more like we have only in America are the odds equall for all.
I have a strategy, it's not written in stone, nor can it be, this scenario has too many variables, everything about it depends on those variables, being specific is not possible.
