Well what a day this has been.. I don’t think my phone stopped ringing all day. I’ve just had an email from Tom, (Director of mySociety, the group that run WriteToThem.com), who noticed the sudden influx of people using their systems linked in from here, which can only be a good thing. First I’d like to point everyone’s attention to their guideline page, which says in brief don’t spam, be considerate, don’t use pre-typed messages, use your own postcode, and please don’t use the system if you’re not from the UK.
Tom thought I might be interested to know that they are launching a new service on Monday, called www.pledgebank.com, specifically designed to get people to work together to do things they otherwise wouldn’t or couldn’t achieve.
If we create a pledge on there before monday the cause will, according to them, likely benefit from media coverage when they launch (as will all the other pledges on the site). Please post ideas for a pledge on the forums here, and the most sensible pledge will be created tomorrow to see what kind of interest it can dig up
The huge increase in traffic on the site today both on the news page and in the forums was immense and goes to show that there’s a lot more Airsofters and enthusiasts that lurk in the background who have been stirred by the proposed VCR Bill today. We’re not talking a small jump here either, we’re talking a leap to a record of over 21,000 individuals and 100,000 page views in one single day. There have been some good responses over on the BBC “Have Your Say”: VCR Bill page too.
I am limited in what I can do from the perspective of a website, however the more people that are aware of this bill, the problems it will cause in the firearms world and elsewhere, the more people there are who can stand up, contact their local MP and voice their objections to the bill. For a halt to be placed on the bill would be truly amazing given the support it currently sports, however perhaps your efforts may produce a more favorable rewrite on the terms that are to be placed in the bill. Here’s the latest from the Cybershooters.org mailing list:
You can read the Bill [here]. The “Violent Crime Reduction” Bill contains the following provisions:
– Introduces an offence of “minding” a firearm;
– Increases the age limit for possession, acquisition, etc. of an airgun to 18;– Introduces an offence of firing an air weapon beyond premises;
– Restricts the sale and purchase of primers and anything containing a primer which is not ammunition (which sounds as though it includes blanks) to certificate holders, RFDs, etc.;
– Restricts the sale and purchase of reloading presses to people who hold a certificate, RFDs, etc.;
– Prohibits the sale, import, manufacture of “realistic imitation firearms”;
– Gives the Secretary of State the power to regulate the design of imitation firearms;
– Introduces an age limit of 18 on the sale or acquisition of an imitation firearm;
– Increases a wide range of penalties in relation to firearm offences.By far the worst bit (of many bad bits) of this legislation is the prohibition on “realistic imitation firearms”.
Realistic is defined as:
“In this section “realistic imitation firearm” means an imitation firearm whose appearance is so realistic as to make it indistinguishable, for all practical purposes, from-
(a) a firearm of an existing make or model; or
(b) a firearm falling within a description that applies to an existing category of firearms which, even though they include firearms of different makes or models or both, all have the same or a similar appearance.”“Imitation firearm” is defined in the Firearms Act 1968 (and this Bill uses this definition) as:
“any thing which has the appearance of being a firearm… whether or not it is capable of discharging any shot, bullet or other missile”
In other words, this prohibition would catch a wide variety of stuff, airsoft guns, blank-firers, probably deacs, model guns, etc.
It will be possible (subject to whatever the Secretary of State specifies as an acceptable design) to still make airsofts, e.g. by making them out of brightly coloured plastic or uprating the power level so they become air weapons, but I can’t see realistically how blank-firers can survive if you do need a certificate to acquire blanks and deacs would have to be heavily modified to not look “realistic”. Ditto for model guns and other imitations.
So many people own guns in these categories that it must be well into the hundreds of thousands of people if not millions.
Don’t hang about – write a letter to your MP as soon as you can and make an appointment to see them.
Points to make are the unenforceability of the legislation (how can you stop people selling imitations they already own?); the scale of the impact on the population (huge numbers of people will be affected, probably with little warning and without compensation); the absurdity of increasing the age limit on air guns when it was only increased two years ago; the fact that an endless series of gun laws have been followed by higher levels of armed crime; and the scale of the impact on the economy (a LOT of gun dealers will be forced out of business).
DO IT NOW!!! Steve, (Cybershooters.org)
And to end things I thought I’d add in a quote sent in by Nigel that seems somewhat apt:
By a free country, I mean a country where people are allowed,
As long as they do not hurt their neighbours, To do as they like.
I do not mean a country where six men may make five men do
exactly as they like. Lord Salisbury (1830 – 1903)
