90 years ago, what goes around comes around. Sound Familiar?

[Martin Hedington]

22. The Firearms Act 1920 set a true precedent for virtually all the firearms legislation that has followed.

• It was panic legislation, enacted without a proper appreciation of the problem.

• The politicians of day lied to both Parliament and the people.

• It was badly drafted and had to be amended time and again over the next few years.

• There was no consultation with user groups.

• It had no honestly stated objectives and there was no method by which its success or failure could be measured.

• It produced no measurable benefit it terms of crime control, reduction of disorder or safeguarding the public.

• It gave civil servants power to effectively change the law by administrative means. For example, in respect of keeping arms for personal defence, the Home Office first advised police that firearms could be possessed for that purpose, but they would be more likely to be required in rural rather than urban areas. Next they advised that they could rarely be justified and now they advise that they can never be justified. The right to keep arms for defence has been removed by police and civil servants by purely administrative measures.

• It created restrictions designed to be manipulated by both politicians and administrators. More than 70 years afterwards HM Inspectorate of Constabulary reported that, despite guidance, firearms licensing officers in the 43 different police forces were adding their own criteria for the ownership of firearms based on subjective opinions. “The shooting public are being subjected to differing local requirements, some of which border on the discriminatory, without apparent justification.”

[Stefan]

Martin,

What is encouraging is the fact that through 90 years the fight to keep and bear arms has not been lost. Although tiresome, I believe that the gun owning fraternity in this country are closer to a common cause than they ever were. With continued preasure from all associations the government are starting to realize they are dealing with a responsible well educated collective, and their attempt to portray gun owners as deviants of society is backfiring big time.

As with any worthwile cause one ask oneself if it is worh the trouble. Very encouraging to see that for close to a century, it has been worth the trouble.

Whatis the current status of BGOASA's case against the Minister of Police regarding compensation?

Regards

Stefan

[Martin Hedington]

Martin,..... As with any worthwile cause one ask oneself if it is worh the trouble. Very encouraging to see that for close to a century, it has been worth the trouble.

Although my primary function is acting as a liason between the 'white' and 'black' sectors of the lobby, (even though GOSA, SAGA, SAHGCA and most others actually are in fact multi-racial environments), I felt that the one-gun (purely SD) population, -comprising by far the vast majority of SA Gunowners-, was underserved, particularly the Black Sector.

Given that there are over 1.2 million Black (African) gunowners, this is a massive potential for numbers. So yes, in a nutshell, its worth it.

Fortunately, my maker -in his ultimate wisdom- has recently facilitated the where-with-all to persue some very promising projects for the lobby as a whole, so I intend maximising the time, the resources and the effort to promote the most popular online grouping of like-minded, law-abiding peacemakers in this great country I've adopted.

What is the current status of BGOASA's case against the Minister of Police regarding compensation?

Yah well no fine, actually that turned out to be a red herring for us. The Attorneys concerned turned out to be just gold-diggers just fishing for fresh meat, (which ones aren't?). However, within a short space of time I'd entered into discussions with the G/S team about their Class Action (The Gunsite Challenge).

Once it became apparent that there was in fact a groundswell of support, the only thing left was to work out how to turn it into a Tsunami, one that would by sheer weight of numbers influence the people that watch us, (and be assured that they do).

Eight or ten thousand people chucking say ten bucks a month into the 'Legal kitty' buys a bloody good kick-ass legal team. We just have to get our ducks in a row and work out what we want, I sincerely believe its there for the taking.

In Common Cause,

Martin_tu.

Contributing Member: GOSA, GUNSITE, SAGA, BGOASA.