Rod, at 19:52 on May 12 1996, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

BL> No they're not... they only want to remove SLRs. No one has
BL> a problem with sporting rifles and non-automatic shotguns.

BG> OK, it seem that at THIS stage, they only want to
BG> completely ban self-loading and fully-automatic weapons,

RS> He's fucked that up completely. They will ban pump action shotguns as
RS> well, and 'military style' rifles, which includes stuff like 303s too.

Yeah, so I heard last night.  I'm speechless.

BG> but surely they can't mean to include lowly self-loading .22s as well ?

RS> They do indeed. Stark raving bonkers. Talk about dead shit pollys.

Jackboot Johnny strikes again.  They're all fucking insane.

BG> That's completely mad, and a typical knee-jerk if ever I saw one.

RS> It is indeed.

If they'd waited 6 months, that legislation would never get through.

BG> And where does that leave ANYBODY who currently legally owns
BG> pistols, ALL of which are self-loading by their very nature ?

RS> Nothings changed for them, the changes only apply to rifles and shotguns.

Oh, so licensed self-loading pistols, like the 15-shot 9mm Browning (with
which I could easily kill heaps of people in a very short time, and even
more with a few extra magazines) are quite OK, but licensed 10-shot .22
semi-autos are now banned, right?  As are 5-shot pump action shotguns? 
What more can I say?

RS> It doesnt affect those at all. Its not too clear what happens
RS> about the military rifle stuff tho. Some even includes the modern
RS> military stuff like Steyrs too.

Those are self-loading too, and are therefore illegal now as well.

RS> Presumably that can be classed as still just part of the military. I 
RS> presume thats what they do now, that you dont get to take one of those 
RS> home. Not sure tho.

Dunno, that will no doubt be spelled out in detail later.

BG> Frankly, I think that everybody should wait six
BG> months, or at least until the emotive aspect of this
BG> issue has abated. Fucking knee-jerk politicians...

RS> They wont be doing that, they know damned well
RS> they only have a hope of doing it right now.

Yep, you got that right.  Johnny's no fool.  A fuckwit maybe, but no fool.

RS> Bit surprised that people like Jeffery and Russ had no balls tho.

Maybe they see it as a great boost to their political standing, who knows?

RS> Corse they may well be a better judge of the public than I am too.

I'd have been happy to agree with the results of a referendum, but I'm NOT
happy about being effectively disarmed.  I'm sure that all the crims and
loonies will be down at their local cop shops first thing in the morning,
handing in all of their unlicensed illegal wepons too.  :(

Frankly, I'm currently far too annoyed to discuss this issue rationally.

Regards, Bill

--- Msgedsq/2 3.20