NEWS: Replica Guns To Be Banned?

The UK government has announced plans to ban the production, import and ownership of replica handguns. This new legislation is being drawn up due to a 66% increase in crimes involving replica handguns last year. The government has also announced they will be increasing the age to buy a knife from 16 to 18.



This ban is probably for the best as the number of crimes involving replica guns has risen dramatically in the last year.

It is sometimes very hard to tell wether a weapon is fake or not, so the ban will be a good way to calm Britains rising crime figures.

So this is like banning guns reduces gun crime? Whatever..... How is banning something going to reduce it's use? Show me an example of something that is banned actually end up not being used? All your doing is banning responsible people owning them as the criminals will not care if it is illegal, hence why they are criminals!

Stupid, but entirely normal, Government reaction. Instead of trying to treat the disease they just fight the symptoms.

How will this affect those that enjoy Airsoft (basically paintballing but with BB Guns). Will responsible people have to be punished again for doing something that they enjoy, when it is only a small handful of twats that are spoiling it?

Guns, reproduction wall hanger guns, pointy butcher knives... I guess if I lived there, I'd be sleeping a whole bunch better at night.

Sorry England... It's jus that it looks like you're a step on the banana peel away from being closed down and locked up. I hope, sincerely hope that I am wrong.
My "Big Problem" is, if you go, how far behind can we be in the USofA?



edited because I still can't spell.

[edit on 8-6-2005 by sigung86]

Guns don't kill people, knives do!

Remember, if the UK bans replica guns, the criminals will abide by the new law and not get replica guns, either. Besides, I'd rather be held up at knife point than with a replica gun. Them replicas are dangerous!

Here is a link to my thread on wether or not the UK gun ban is working!

And also.......74 views, 4 replies and yet still no 'up or down' vote......This is getting ridiculous now!
If the story is not right then vote it down, otherwise vote yes....all it takes is one click of the mouse!!!!!

Yes the gun ban has worked.

Gun crime with people usign real guns has gone down, not that it was any where near the high rate of places such as the US in the first place.

The down side of this is that gun crime using replicas has gone up, because people find it harder to get real ones.

Banning replicas would decrease this statistic. Many have lumped gun crime using replicas and real guns together, silly of course.

I'd like to see the actual 'numbers' of crimes committed using replica guns. 66% sounds suspiciously like 2/3 of a very small number... convenience statistics.

Here are the figures for gun crime in the UK over the last 2 yrs:



Notice the 48% rise in crimes involving replica weapons!

I think there should be a special approval to own replica guns.

They look all to real (that's why they're replicas) and they can easily be confused for the real thing. Don't ban them....just make sure that mature adults have to get authorization from a polic station or something....Im not talking about an extensive background check either...just a simple yay or nay and maybe records check

Can you get the figures comparing the replica gun crimes to knife crimes in the UK?

Also a 15% decrease in firearm crimes, yeah the ban on firearms is a waste of time isnt it! I'd rather the ban and the gun crime figures the UK has to deal with compared to the United States rampant gun culture and crime.

The figures clearly show that free access to guns directly relates to increased gun crimes. Yes, bans do not take the weapons out of the hands of all criminals but they do reduce the amount of crimes.

Forcing a criminal to buy a gun on the blackmarket means higher prices. Which means less access to them to most criminals. If there wasnt a ban on guns these same criminals would still have access to the them.

Ok, so really a 5% rise in gun crimes after banning guns. There's just been a shift to replicas now that the real thing's harder to get.

It seems to me that criminals haven't been affected at all, maybe even committing more crimes now to pay for those more expensive illegal guns.

Without replica weapons, criminals will just start using something else. When they ban that, they'll start making their own. The real numbers of violent crimes won't drop because weapons are harder to get, the types of weapons and statistics will just move around.

Forcing a criminal to buy a gun on the blackmarket means higher prices

Criminals get guns on the blackmarket anyways.....cuz they can't legally get them, that's why there is a black market for guns now.

And the prices are cheaper on the black market I think.

I wonder if "replica" includes the CO2 powered air pistols?
If so, then the government itself is guilty of causing the problem. Handguns were banned after the Dunblane incident so many sports pistol shooters were deprived of their sport. The handguns they used were licenced firearms, traceable, kept in strictly controlled and audited conditions, checked by county police forces. After the ban, the CO2 powered pistols started arriving and many sports shooters, deprived of their fullbore firearms switched to these to continue the sport.
The problem is, these low powered air pistols although looking very much like, and modelled on their fullbore counterparts, are not a licenced product and can be bought over the counter by anyone over the age of 17.

The sale of replica guns should definitley be brought under, i dont believe they should be banned because that is not very fair on people that use them responsibly.

How real does this look........


If somebody ran up to you with this would you:

A.) Think, oh its ok, its probably just a replica!
Or
B.) AAHHHH, PANIC, curl up in a ball, produce a brown log in your undies and cry for your mother!

I know which one i would do!!!!!



And just for the record......141 views, 14 replies and STILL no 'up or down'!!!!!

[edit on 9/6/2005 by MickeyDee]

Originally posted by SportyMB
And the prices are cheaper on the black market I think.

Wrong, the manufacture and legal sale of the weapons are set priced. The extra level of handling (the black market) adds a markup for the risk of smuggling the weapons into the country. Pay offs and the bribes as well as increased transportation costs all add to a much higher priced weapon when compared to the RRP.

Originally posted by mythatsabigprobe
It seems to me that criminals haven't been affected at all, maybe even committing more crimes now to pay for those more expensive illegal guns.

Well lets just break the issue down to its basic components.

America
No ban on fire arms

Population (2000): 275,264,999

Total Deaths from firearms per year (2000): 28,663

Firearm deaths per 1000 persons: 9.6

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

United Kingdom
Ban on fire arms

Population (2005): 60,441,457

Total Deaths from firearms per year (2004): 10,670

Firearm deaths per 1000 persons: 5.6

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As can clearly be seen from the basic statistics, a ban on weapons has given us a death toll from firearms 58% less than the in the USA. Its incontrovertible.

[edit on 9/6/05 by subz]

The percentages are what counts when comparing two different countries of two different sizes

Accordong to your stats..

America
No ban on fire arms
Population (2000): 275,264,999
Total Deaths from firearms per year (2000): 28,663
0.010412874903866727% of the population

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

United Kingdom
Ban on fire arms
Population (2005): 60,441,457
Total Deaths from firearms per year (2004): 10,670
0.017653446044492274%

Hey, the is US lower...not by much....but it is lower.

this might help...I think we've gone thru stats before..on the knife thing.

How did you come up with 58%????

[edit on 9/6/2005 by SportyMB]

No Sporty its ratios, not to sure how you got that. Its very simple and obvious how he got the 58%.

Also Subz, I imagine, although I have not looked up the statistics, that non lethal injuries in the US are massive compared to the UK.

Violent Crime Statistics
In 2003-2004, the UK experienced 2,708,000 violent crime incidents
The UK's population is 60,270,708
This means there was about a 4.5% chance of someone living in the UK being the victim of a violent crime.
Source

In the year 2000 (couldn't find stats for 2003), the US had a population of 281,421,906 and experienced 2,440,736 violent crime incidents (combined violent crime, murder, agrivated assault, and rape). This means there is a .87% of an American being the victim of a violent crime. Source

While the UK may have fewer gun crimes by over 50%, there is a remarkably larger chance of being the victim of a violent crime there than in the US. The gun laws may have limited gun crimes there, though they do still happen, but it has done nothing to curb violent crime.

But that isn't really the point junglejake and not relevant to the thread.

I would much rather be punched in the face than shot by a gun.