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Thread: Private guns in American families

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[quote=TRAVELLERMIKE,255293]In the UK it is legal for a private individual to own rifles and shotguns provided the individual is properly licensed to do so.  The obtaining of a license is subject to close Police scrutiny, and a licence can be witheld for any number of reasons.  Following a particularly horrendous shooting incident in the UK, which took place in 1996, a change to the law was made, and it became illegal for members of the general public to posses, or have access to, any hand-guns (pistols or revolvers or the like).  Unfortunately, the number of hand-guns in illegal circulation appears to have increased since this change in the law.

I think that many European Countries have a similar system of licensing, allowing for personal ownership of fire-arms.

The US is differnet, as it is the 'right' of all US citizens to bear arms, enshrined in the constitution (remember the US was formed by armed insurrection by the people rising up, armed, against the British).  It is very difficult for the State to interfere with this basic right, or to introduce any system of universal licencing, though I believe individual States have succeeded in placing some constraints on the types of arms that private individuals can legally possess.  The 'West' is not quite so 'Wild' as it used to be, but the arguments of the so-called 'Gun Lobby' remain strong for preserving the high levels of gun ownership amongst the US population.[/quote]

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