560,000 people own a gun in the UK - do you have a gun in your family?

[cakeorwine]

Quite surprised to hear this statistic today - but it's true

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-firearm-and-shotgun-certificates-england-and-wales-april-2020-to-march-2021/statistics-on-firearm-and-shotgun-certificates-england-and-wales-april-2020-to-march-2021

That seemed a lot. I know some large landowners and farmers probably own one - but 560,000? That seems a lot.

Just curious if you have one in your family and what it's used for?

No, live in a town but yesterday a friend sent me a photo of her garden in New Hampshire. There was a bear in it. So, I felt a bit more understanding of the US insistence on gun ownership. This lasted just a few hours until the hideous news of yesterday's tragedy arrived.

Wow. No. I don't know anyone young or old who would do this in the U.K. The gun owners I know all take the licence conditions very seriously and keep their guns locked away, ammo separate.

Air rifles..
DH and Ds belong to the local gun club

I wish there were regulations around air rifles. I had a cat who was shot by one, and needed vet treatment. Was also walking my dog, and a teen shot at my dog from a flat window with one. Luckily he was a lousy shot.
My dad has an air rifle and shoots at cats that come into the garden. He needs it taking off him.

Not in our household.
My grandfather has land with lots of outbuildings full of various junk, tools, car parts, farm machinery... I wouldn't be surprised if he has a gun in there somewhere but probably too old to actually function.

I mean the gun is too old to function, not my grandfather!

Yes, my DH has shotgun & firearms license. We have 13 guns in the house (at the last count!) everything from .308 to m4 etc.. DH does mainly long range target shooting (no animals) and clay pigeon shooting.

No. But I live in London and assume the only people with guns around here are the unlicensed sort…

My dad has a few - in fact he has a smaller one for my younger two children. They’re for clay shooting - a very common hobby in my rural hometown.

All locked up in a gun safe and fully licensed of course.

FIL, two uncles, and a cousin have rifles. It's a mix of pest control and pheasant shooting.

Yes. I have shotguns. I used to compete at clays, now I shoot for fun and shoot game in the season. I'd do pest control if I had more leisure time. I had the odd County cap and championship. I would style myself as competent with flashes of excellence. I haven't had time to take up rifle shooting, but my shooting besties all have DSC1 and above.

I have many, many female friends who shoot. There's something about a woman who has the gumption to pick up a gun that makes her good company. We challenge tradition just by being female and taking the leisure time to shoot whilst appreciating the good parts of our countryside heritage. I support several conservation organisations financially for example. And we're not afraid to sully our hands with the reality of the food chain.

People's perceptions of guns have been spoiled by male violence and American media. A shotgun is a tool.

Since I started shooting the percentage of female shotgun certificate holders has risen from 4.5% to nearly 7%.

My DH is a farmer so yes we have a shotgun for pigeon control. It's locked away in a hidden gun cabinet deadlocked to the wall with the keys hidden elsewhere and was checked by the police when he applied for his gun licence. Most other farmers I know have at least one shotgun.

Thinking that's a lot of farmers, game hunters and clay pigeon shooters, in honesty.

No, I haven't and I don't know anyone who has.

This is probably a very silly question but do people like armed police officers need gun licences?

Yes, we have a 12 bore and a 20 bore for DS (13). Hoping to inherit a 16 bore from my uncle as this can be used very flexibly. We use these for shooting game, which we eat (mostly pheasant, partridge, pigeon). DS and friends also enjoy clays out of season and have fun with air rifles. We are very hot on gun safety, both when handling a firearm and storing properly, hence police-approved shotgun cabinets, cartridges stored separately etc.

For anything they wish to own for personal use yes.

For offical weapons checked out from the armoury to approved, qualified personnel, no. Ditto the military.

I used to have a shotgun licence and owned three guns, all of which were stored in a safe etc, but I gave up shooting and had the guns destroyed, as I didn't want to sell or pass them on.

Vets have to have personal gun licences for guns owned by their practice. Rural and some racecourse work.

Don't think captive bolts are included but handguns with silencer definitely are. (Required for pts of horses - captive bolt not long enough...)

Getting it out when required was apparently like something from the Krypton Factor...

I don't have a gun nor do I know anyone who has one.

I'm near London so there's not a lot of farmers here.

There are a couple of shooting ranges for target shooting as a sport so I guess people who regularly use those may have their own guns.

DH and I both have shotguns for clay pigeon shooting. We keep them in gun safes at the shooting club, never take them home. I'd say maybe a third to half of the members keep theirs at the club and never take them home. When a safe is rented out the only person who can access it is the licence holder for the gun. Even the management at the club can't access them.

Rural farming community here, so lots of guns. It's not a problem until a farmer becomes mentally ill. We've had several cases over the last decade where a farmer has shot himself.

But I accept guns are a vital part of rural life. And I'm about as woolly liberal as they come!

Not in immediate family but in wider family - the reasons you mentioned. They don’t use it but I think it’s more a case of better to have the licence than wish they had it in a few years if there is a particular vermin problem to control etc.

I have friends who are games keepers & large animal vets who have firearms, and lots of friends in the live action reenactment field with black powder licences. Add in the Police mates who have firearm training & I’m probably one of the only ones who haven’t fired a real gun (although, a lifetime ago, I had to get pyro & black powder licences to arm a replica shotgun etc. as stage manager during a theatre tour)!

Of the 560,000, I wonder how many own a semi-automatic weapon, since its these which are always used for mass shootings in the States. I imagine it's very few.