Judge wants review of weapons law - Page 2

Furface · #11 (**permalink**) 26-05-05, 12:54 AM

Sadly, the internet means that controls at point of purchase would be futile. If it comes - when - control will have to be at individual or club level.
But we should remember that, so long as our sport takes a reasonable and co-operative approach, control could work in our favour. It was when the handgun sport took the "you're branding us all as nutters" line and refused to face the issue after Dunblane that the politicians - well, acted like politicians.

English Bowman · #12 (**permalink**) 26-05-05, 01:40 AM

By JOHN TROUP from THE SUN

A MAN was shot in the back with an ARROW early yesterday after his car was stopped on a country lane.

The builder got out of his Ford Transit because a red van with its passenger door open was blocking the single-track road.

As he walked towards the vehicle he saw a woman crouching by the driver’s door talking on a mobile.

He took a step back then felt a searing pain in his back. The 46-year-old realised he had been hit and turned to see a man standing 20ft away holding a LONGBOW.

Fearing he would be shot again he pulled the arrow from his back, jumped into his van and raced away.

He was treated in hospital and luckily the arrow missed his major organs.

Police were last night hunting the bowman and the woman after the 6.15am attack at Great Bromley, Essex. Officers think the pair sped off in their Ford Escort van.

Police said: “The victim was shot just below his left shoulder blade and fortunately his rib cage protected his vital organs. He is now recovering at home but is very sore and groggy.

“This was a very rural location. It appears to have been a completely unprovoked attack.”

So it's not just crossbows that we have to worry about

Dan

pitprops · #13 (**permalink**) 26-05-05, 05:47 AM

Doesn't this all come down to the blame culture and nanny state of the society we now live in. If something bad happens to anyone, then someone else must be found to blame for it. The result is that we end up finding our freedom to do as we choose where we choose and when we choose severely restricted.

An example. When I'm not shooting big aluminium spears at defenceless bales of straw, I fly kites. About 18 months ago, there was a tragic death at Lytham St. Annes involving a land yacht and a young woman on the beach during a land yacht race. The lady had wandered onto the course, was hit by the wheels of a yacht and died from her injuries.

What has this to do with kites? As a result, kite traction sports (buggying, mountain boarding, etc) is now severely restricted or banned in most public areas. Why? Gerenally because the councils don't want to get sued if an accident happens. So rather than control an activity, they simply ban it. Further, in many areas, all forms of kiting are banned. So a little kid wanting to fly their £5 plastic thomas the tank engine kite is banned!

So now move this into the archery arena. It doesn't matter about the technical differences between a longbow, crossbow, recurve or compound. They are all bows. In the eyes of the public, the difference will be that some can throw their projectile a bit further with greater accuracy. So ultimately it all gets tarred with the same brush, and rather than try to frame legislation that takes account of the differences, and ends up leaving lots of loopholes, it is easier to ban everything. Because a bow has little discernable use other than for shooting arrows, its relatively easy to ban. Had someone been stabbed with a breadknife, its a lot more difficult to say we will ban the sale of breadknives. I'd like to hope that GNAS would be a strong enough lobbying body to have some influence on our dear legislators, but if the pistol shooting fraternity got wiped out, then I don't hold out too mcuh hope.

Negative I know, but it happens and I don't see a way of stopping it unless we can change the mind set of the great british public.

Armchair Archer · #14 (**permalink**) 26-05-05, 06:42 AM

£5 for a thomas the tank engine kite, thats outrageous !!!!!

Seriously, though, my heart goes out to the woman who was killed but surely the race was publicised. What if#someone walked onto the track at silverstone??? would they ban F1??? To walk into the path of something moving at upto 60mph is lunacy!!!

That said, you can't under estimate the stupidity of the GBP!!!

We often get people walking their dogs, kids, etc behind the targets. The call of 'FAST' goes up at least once a session. The other week one of them actually stopped and picked the kiddy (who must have been all of 2) up to show them the 20 or so men and women pointing their lethal weapons (steady, I mean the bows) in their direction.

I can only imagine what he was telling them - "Look darling, any one of those people could shoot us stone dead, if they felt like it" GAAAHHHH!!!

Matatazela · #15 (**permalink**) 26-05-05, 02:59 PM

An interesting point, regarding the State as Nanny to the public.

In South Africa, generations of people grew up in a firearm accepting culture where there was no control over firearm ownership and children would take a rifle and go into the field unsupervised and hunt small creatures, in days gone by. It then became necessary to licence firearms, and there was a minimum age (16) of ownership, and then a restriction on ownershi of .22 cal weapons and airguns. Now, kids procure weapons and attempt to kill their classmates. Something has changed at a fundamental level, and it is not that firearms are more deadly than they were 50 years ago.

The change has come in holding people responsible for their own actions. The state attempts to control the tool, rather than make sure that stiff and swift retribution will be dealt on any transgessors of the law.

The Nanny State assumes far too much responsibility for individuals actions. However, by controlling the tool, you begin a path down a gloomy road. What about hammers? Or steak knives? Insecticide? Garden spades? Cars? Ultimately, we will need to license every single thing that can kill someone else.

Somewhere, society has lost the plot!

Matatazela · #16 (**permalink**) 26-05-05, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Armchair Archer - 26/5/2005 12:42 AM

That said, you can't under estimate the stupidity of the GBP

Somebody once said that people should not be protected from their own stupidity, and that warning labels should be taken off everything. That way the problem would sort itself out!

Armchair Archer · #17 (**permalink**) 26-05-05, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Matatazela - 26/5/2005 8:00 AM# Somebody once said that people should not be protected from their own stupidity, and that warning labels should be taken off everything. That way the problem would sort itself out!

Interesting thought

Mick · #18 (**permalink**) 27-05-05, 12:07 AM

Some rearly good points here.
In my opinion licencing would be the death of archery, within a decade it would be banned completely, witness pistol shooters, Handguns were banned even though the sawn off shotgun is the criminals weapon of choice.-watch out clay shooters- The mindless and the plain evil seek out guns, at least in part, because they are illegal. (No cudos in owning a legal piece of sporting equipment) Bows would be banned already if they they were more portable and eaisily concealed as they would have been used much more in criminal activity. If we want to see a rise in the misuse of archery equipment I can think of nothing better than licencing to start the ball rolling.
Licencing, implies WEAPON, to the young and impressionable, weapons bring cudos within the peer group and become the lastest must have. Within the last couple of decades Rice frails, death stars, switch blade knives, high powered catapults, mini crossbows et al have all found favour amoung the youth of this country. Most of them have been passing fads but any incident with something highly visable and leathal (A bow or crossbow) it would be like manna from heaven to the press and we would all suffer the consequences very quickly. Gloomy I know, answers? Alas I don't have one. But I'm sure licencing would be the beginning of the end.