Reply to post: Re: "I still don't understand why any sane adult would ever want or need to own a gun."

Re: "I still don't understand why any sane adult would ever want or need to own a gun."

"Living in the UK for 62 years, I never even saw a gun in real life until about 10 years ago"

I have lived, so far, in the UK for 62 years. Guns were and still are a part of daily life for me. I learned to shoot when I was seven and consider that the lessons that I learned at that time are lessons that are useful in life. I live in a farming area rather than some urban hell-hole so I'm used to using guns for perfectly legitimate purposes.

If you only saw a gun at an airport ten years ago you're either very unobservant or rarely use airports. I also suspect that you had not been outside the UK before the age of 52, since even nice liberal countries like Sweden have armed police who carry guns openly on the street.

Shooting is also a pleasant hobby that can be very relaxing. It has elements of self-improvement and also of competition. Until the UK went stark raving bonkers on the subject of guns many people enjoyed the hobby. The portrayal of those who like shooting as psychopaths looking for a place to go postal is unfair to the point of parody. It's as accurate as portraying those who don't like guns as feeble minded knee-jerkers would be.

I'm guessing that you don't feel the same way about archery since I've not seen loud cries to ban bows in England (although some newspapers have worked up a fit about crossbows) yet a bow is a weapon as well as a sporting article. So by the way are the discus, the javelin and the shot, do you feel like banning those as our Olympians were banned from practicing their sport in the UK by the over-reacters?

Meanwhile in France and Germany trucks have been used as weapons. Perhaps we should ban trucks?

"we have no native animals likely to attack us"

That's not true, there are native animals that are likely to attack you in the UK, even within London. They will kill without warning.

They look like this.

There are other native animals that will attack humans. It's just that city folk wander around with their eyes shut and can't see the hazards. Here's a list of some of the native animals that will attack humans.