Councillor charged with possession of pepper spray

Stroud District's deputy chairman Raymond Apperly, 67, was charged last November for possession of two cans of pepper spray, kept for the purpose of home protection. Arm Britain fully supports the right of every individual to acquire and use such items for personal defence and will continue to campaign for legalization.

Readers are encouraged to send an email or letter of support to Raymond via his contact details here.

If you have yet to do so, sign our non-lethal weapon petition here.

More draconian sentencing

Antique firearms collector with more than 140 guns is jailed for two years for owning four air rifles without licence

Yet another example of a trivial paper work offence being treated as though it were a serious violent crime.




Related:


71 year old licensed gun owner jailed for five years for owning a few technically illegal guns


Grandmother jailed for five years for having father's 80 year old pistol


Man jailed for three years for having forgotten pistol in storage


Collector jailed for five years for having a WWII Luger and antique revolver among many deactivated pieces of weaponry


Five years for simply owning a pistol


Man faced five years and dragged through court for handing in abandoned shotgun

Stricter gun controls have not resulted in lower gun crime

Below is a reply by the Home Office to a Freedom of Information Request by Graham Showell. The figures, which exclude air powered guns, illustrate a dramatic rise in the use of firearms in criminal activities.

"I asked for the statistics for gun crime from 1969 to 2009 from the Home Office, which are provided below.


The figures show a massive increase in firearms offences in the last 40 years.
There were 717 offences with guns recorded by police in 1969.
By 2006, that figure had increased to 11,088 crimes.


That's an increase of more than 1,446 percent in just 37 years."

Number of offences involving the use of a firearm recorded by the police, 1969 to 2009/10

Year -  Number of offences

1969 - 717
1970 - 687
1971 - 846
1972  - 795
1973  - 824
1974  - 969
1975  - 1361
1976  - 1,461
1977  - 1,631
1978  - 1,437
1979  - 1,481
1980  - 1,555
1981  - 2,438
1982  - 3,063
1983  - 2,487
1984  - 2,836
1985  - 3,362
1986  - 3,478
1987  - 3,830
1988  - 3,711
1989  - 4,465
1990  - 4,993
1991  - 6,665
1992  - 7,243
1993  - 7,730
1994  - 6,002
1995  - 5,866
1996  - 6,063
1997  - 4,904
1997/98  - 4,903
1998/99 - 5,209
1999/00  - 6,843
2000/01  - 7,471
2001/01  - 10,024
2002/03 - 10,248
2003/04  - 10,338
2004/05 - 11,069
2005/06  - 11,088
2006/07  - 9,645
2007/08  - 9,865
2008/09  - 8,200
2009/10  - 8,052

1967 - certificate required to own shotguns introduced

1982 - Imitation firearms considered 'readily convertible' brought under the scope of the   Firearms Act

1988 - Self-loading and pump action centre-fire rifles prohibited, shotguns limited to magazine capacity of 2 cartridges

1995 - specifications for deactivated firearms made more stringent

1997 - cartridge handguns prohibited, licencing procedures are made more stringent

2004 - Mandatory five year minimum sentence introduced for possession of prohibited firearms

Petitions to sign

Our petitions have gone live and are now accepting signatures via the new direct.gov website. Please spread the word about them to friend's and family, as well as copy and paste the text below to as many forums, blogs and email addresses as you can.


As many of you will know, there has been a lot of talk recently about the increasing rate of gun violence in the United Kingdom.

The truth is that gun control does not appear to be working here.

Despite some of the strictest gun laws in the world, armed violence seems to be a routine, daily occurrence here in the UK, with criminals having no problems acquiring and using all types of firearms.

The law-abiding, on the other hand, are utterly defenceless.

With this in mind, three petitions have now been launched.

The first of these petitions calls for the strengthening of UK self-defence laws, the second relates to UK firearms legislation and the third is to repeal all laws against the sale, possession and carrying of non lethal weapons.

I would ask you to read these petitions and sign the ones that you agree with.

I would also ask that you please notify other people of these petitions by email or by posting this message on as many websites, blogs and forums as possible.

These petitions can be read and signed by visiting the following link -

http://www.britainneedsguns.co.uk/viewmypetitions.htm

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PETITION TO GRANT THE ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO HOME DEFENCE.

We, the undersigned, believe that the law regarding self-defence should be altered to make explicit that a householder is entitled to use any and all measures against an unlawful intruder within their home without fear of prosecution or any requirement to demonstrate proportionality or 'reasonableness' of response.


http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/172


PETITION TO REPEAL THE 1997 AND 1988 FIREARMS ACTS.

We, the undersigned, petition the UK government to repeal both the 1997 and 1988 Firearms Acts. We believe that law-abiding people should be allowed to own handguns as well as other firearms prohibited under these laws, should they wish to do so.

These acts were knee-jerk reactions to tragic incidents and have done nothing to decrease violent crime. We also petition the government to amend firearms legislation so that all applicants for Firearms Certificates (FAC's) are treated in the same, fair manner.

We believe that the police should have no discretion to deny an FAC to any adult unless he or she has a conviction for a serious violent crime (such as robbery, rape or murder) nor should they have the authority to revoke a FAC unless a person is convicted of a serious crime of violence resulting in a prison sentence.

An appeal procedure (heard by a jury) should be introduced so that any ex-offender has the chance to obtain an FAC, regardless of what crimes he committed and when.


http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/463


PETITION TO LEGALISE NON LETHAL WEAPONS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

We, the undersigned, petition the UK government to repeal all laws that prohibit the sale, possession and carrying of non-lethal weapons in the United Kingdom.

Crime is rising and law-abiding people have no means of defence against armed and violent aggressors. This is unacceptable and needs to be changed immediately.

We believe that self-defence sprays such as CS gas and pepper spray should be legally available so that citizens can carry them in public for personal protection, along with electronic stun devices such as tasers and stun guns.

The recent cut in police officer numbers makes this all the more essential as the police's response to 999 calls is going to be much slower now than it ever was before.

Almost all EU countries allow their citizens to have an effective means of self-defence and the UK should change its laws with immediate effect.


http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/464