300,000 crossbow owners in this county. Why?

[newnamethanks]

What possible reason could anyone have for owning one? Competitions? Is that a thing?

Competitions? Hobby groups? Cos play?
I assume use is strictly limited .

Not regulated according to Sky news.

There was a fad for archery 10-15 years ago after the success of Hunger Games, and Avengers (Hawkeye), and a lot of people thought crossbows were a cooler option.

(I used to compete in archery before the fad, so saw it happen)

The same reason why people own swords, air rifles, throwing axes etc...

They want to.

Archery is an Olympic sport

Hobby in our case. All of our weapons are hobby related.

It's not at all restricted. My first boyfriend (when I was young and stupid) had a number of crossbows and even metal tipped darts that he shot out of it - they would go about 6 inches deep into a tree. :(
He bought them off the Internet for mot very much money. No checks, no restrictions, no reason other than 'it's cool'.... went well with his collection of swords and daggers... pleased he got bored of me when he did personally.

I hope they can be regulated now.

By restrictions I mean if someone was using one in a public place like a park or somewhere they'd be told to stop.

Hobby, my dad first taught me to shoot when I was about 5. I live in the middle of nowhere and have about 5 archery clubs within 10 miles

Because they can? There is no legal restriction on buying one other than being over 18

Cos they dont allow us to have guns!

Archery clubs are a good social hobby.

I’ve just seen the news. 3 people killed in attack with crossbow. Awful. (And really disingenuous OP to start this thread without context).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6p284ng14yt

I mean you do realise anyone could make one right same as catapults.

In fact home made could be even more dangerous.

AFAIK, not many people have been murdered by crossbow. I don't doubt there have been some, but restrictions tend only to be introduced after catastrophe.

Guns were technically only banned in the UK in 1997 after Dunblain.

It's because they're legal to own

UK-based Preppers like them, as they are an alternative to the much-harder-to-obtain-here guns of their US counterparts.

I have a crossbow. Used ONLY at archery club and made sure that it was to Archery GB's legal specification. Also shoot with more traditional recurve kit. In my view, crossbows not being regulated is ludicrous. Proof of a club membership should be an absolute minimum. As it is, anyone who can prove to be over 18 can walk into an archery shop and come out with something that's utterly lethal at 100 yards+. I might be sensible, but too many folk out there aren't.

Do you live next door to Dennis the menace?

A friends neighbour had one. Used to sit there in his garden getting pissed shooting anything that moved. Police not interested.

I had not seen the news when I commented, very sad news. Perhaps all bow's should be licensed. I have been a member of an archery club in the past, I doubt any member would have had a problem with proper licensing and having their equipment registered.