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?

So, lots of legally held guns, kept by licenced owners and stored safely. One or two ancient family 'heirlooms' that nobody knows how to use.

Not a single semi- or fully-automatic assault rifle.

Not a single admission of illegally held firearms.

560000 is the number of recorded guns held. I would imagine in the shadier part of society, sometimes much closer to home than you'd care to imagine, that the number of illegally owned guns is at least equal to that.

I would hope that you would need extra special permission to procure and keep any sort of automatic assault rifle in the UK. Yet in the US it seems they are 'freely' available to anyone, with horrific consequences.

It's not the legally held guns we need to be worrying so much about in the UK....

DH has a couple of air rifles, for vermin control (we have land).
His brother is a member of a gun club and also has a smallholding - he has a .22 rifle, shotguns and air rifles.

All are appropriately stored and licensed.

There is quite a big hunting shop in our local town, so there must be a fair few of the huntin', shootin', fishin' set in these parts - urban, but on the edge of countryside.

Not in the family as such, but family adjacent there's tons of guns.
There's farmers and hunters, hobbyists that use shooting ranges and sports pistol shooting, clay pigeon etc etc.

I like guns. They're fascinating and terrifying. I'd not want one in the house though personally.

My step df has a cupboardful.

No guns here but both DH and DS learned to shoot and both have lots of certificates, both very good at sniping. I do know a farmer who has guns and my friends DH has air soft guns.

I’ve a family member who shoots competitively, won several medals over the years. Also have three friends who own guns for clay pigeon shooting and have done for many years.

No guns, but I've got bows. Including a compound that could easily be lethal. Thing is this just shows what happens when you have sensible gun laws - sensible people have the freedom to have guns for legitimate purposes.

DH has an air rifle, I have a shotgun. Both kept in a gun safe (we both have shotgun licences, although the current shotgun belongs to me). Most of our colleagues and neighbours have guns, we’re pretty rural and pest control is part of both our jobs.

@fuuuuuckit Automatic weapons cannot be held legally by private citizens in the U.K. the closest you can have is a semi-auto shotgun that holds three cartridges rather than two.
There were approx 30 murders with firearms in England and Wales in the last year for which stats have been published. 27% of those were in London. Almost all were with illegal weapons. I can only think of one incident involving a licensed firearm.

That's not a UK statistic.

We have two shotguns at home - both DH and I can shoot. Getting our licences required letters from our GP and the police came round to vet us and check that the guns are securely stored.

My dad has several guns at home as he collects antique weapons but most no longer work. You could do more damage to someone with the knives in the kitchen. Again, those that do work have been declared to the police.

Grew up in rural, isolated part of country (70s, 80s).
DF had several guns for field sports.
He also had severe MH problems and used the guns recklessly, including loading one and threatening to kill us all (we all hid in a bedroom).
I also accidentally fired one as a child when trying to lift it.

Still trying to make sense of it all

All my farming uncles have them and I imagine all their neighbouring farmers do too

No. We have no need and are really not into them (besides I am a dreadful shot) and would probably not find it if I needed to use it, but why would I need one? Plus if a small one in my bag I would never be able to locate it! So any burgular would have to be content with a hairbrush aimed at them!