Monday 30 May 2011

"Hush child go to sleep, it's only the sound of a gun..."

Police launched an armed response after three men, including one who was believed to be armed, were seen near Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA), in Falmer yesterday afternoon.

A member of staff at the former Falmer High School dialed 999 after seeing the men and pupils were ushered into their classrooms.
Fear of another Hungerford or Dunblane clearly in their minds, no doubt.

But no. It was just what you really should expect if your school is in the middle of a rural community:
But when the police helicopter located the men it was discovered the gunman was using a legal air rifle to hunt rabbits.
Whew! Panic over, right?

Wrong:
The mother of a 13-year-old pupil said: “My son said it was a boy chasing three rabbits with a gun.

He apparently fired the gun and a lot of pupils saw it.

“It is really worrying. I’m really worried about how this could have happened.”
And she's not the only nervous nellie:
pcdoc1, Brighton says...

I have a daughter at the school and hearing about firearms being seen was very scary. The teachers have not even mentioned about the incident and we didnt know if our daughter was safe untill she arrived home.

Guns kill even trained firearms experts have been known to make mistakes.

The police might as well put a notice up in this paper saying anyone who wants to do some shooting go to baca school and enjoy yourselfs!

Incompetent!
Trying to reason with people like this is utterly futile, though some commenters try anyway. It falls on wilfully deaf ears:
lana18, says...

for all u inconsiderate prats that obviously dont have kids ,it was a very scary time.For us as parents it is a worrying time! when u hear a gun man is about in baca and u only live down the road with kids ,it is scary not knowing what would happen next,so keep ur stupid comments to ur selfs,cos u all know it all dont u mr i am perfect people ,air rifle or gun either are scary and dangerous!
I can only hope the school does a better job with your kids than it clearly did with you, lana18...

But this is the sort of hysteria and overdeveloped sense of danger that leads, inevitably, to this sort of nonsense:
illagers in Oxfordshire are smarting after being hit with a ban on using a starting pistol to send off competitors in a centuries-old race.

A shotgun was once used to start the Great Shirt Race, which is held at Whitsun and features two teams pushing prams round Bampton's pubs and drinking half a pint of beer at each. But in 2000 that was replaced with a starter pistol after pressure from police.
Now they've been told that because the starter pistol, an Olympic .380 BBM, can be converted for criminal use they cannot use that either.
The issue seems to be a change in the law (as a result of these converted weapons being used in several street murders) and since the starting pistol is now a licensed weapon, and no-one in Bampton has the appropriate license, they cannot use it.

Bet you feel much safer as a result, villagers. Right?

21 comments:

PT said...

Sorry, Julia, but just this once I'm on the side of the villagers. Why, just the other day I heard a loud crack. The police armed response team, fortunately, were nearby, and arrested a local man in possession of several dry sticks, one of which he'd stood on.

Anonymous said...

This is probably bad communication. If you told parents there was a man with a gun near their child's school what's the first thing they would think?

Anyway what's someone doing hunting near a school anyway, nevermind whether it's legal?

Anonymous said...

"Anyway what's someone doing hunting near a school anyway, nevermind whether it's legal?"

They aim a cross hair above the Rabbits eye and pull this thing called a trigger.

A pellet is then ejected (at extremely low velocity) using compressed air and the quarry is killed and then consumed (that meat in Tesco - it was alive once you know)

I love folk like you Anon - You make oi larf (and give the scare mongers the fodder they need to disarm the citizen and increase armament of the State...Take a bow you skip licking gimp)

Single Acts of Tyranny said...

It seems to me that young men in particular will always want to get their hands on a gun (I know I did) so the only question is, should they be trained to safely use one, or given one by a criminal in Peckham?

English Viking said...

Air rifles are not firearms. There's a clue in the name.

Anon.

I guess what the guy was doing was enjoying his legal rights to hunt rabbit with an air rifle. Instead of banning hunting, can't we just ban idiots?

Pavlov's Cat said...

Not a lot of chance getting our firearms back based on these comments (not these , the ones in the paper)

Disarmed physically and now it seems mentally

Anonymous said...

I have a mate who does have a licence for starting pistols. One wonders why cops couldn't just have sorted the issue by issue!

Guns near schools? Why no law just excluding them for a mile?

My grandson has a passing interest with BB guns - so I have one I let him shoot in the back. Looking to buy one, I found they are made to look like toys - very sensible. The same shop, however, was selling air weapons that look every inch like real guns. Dum-dum, we might say.

Angry Exile said...

I think I heard that Cameramong's mob are considering a law change to insist that only starting pistols which meet these requirements will be allowed.

Lerxst said...

As an aide, I'm not sure what worries me more - you quoting a Chris de Burgh song, or me knowing you're quoting Chris de Burgh song...

Lerxst said...

As an aside even....

David Gillies said...

An air weapon which develops less than 12 foot pounds of muzzle energy is not classed as a firearm and therefore does not need a Firearms Certificate. We used to muck about with air rifles and pistols as kids and no-one thought anything of it (truth be told, we used to muck about with shotguns and rifles and full-bore pistols too, and it was considered thoroughly normal.) God people are turning into wimps.

Dick Puddlecote said...

Tom Servo is having a lot of fun on that thread. :)

JuliaM said...

"...and arrested a local man in possession of several dry sticks, one of which he'd stood on."

:D

"This is probably bad communication."

Oh, bad communication is a big part of it, but it's not the only thing. Not by far.

"... young men in particular will always want to get their hands on a gun (I know I did) so the only question is, should they be trained to safely use one, or given one by a criminal in Peckham?"

Spot on!

"Instead of banning hunting, can't we just ban idiots?"

It'd be a much smaller and less crowded country if we did!

JuliaM said...

"Disarmed physically and now it seems mentally"

And it's the latter which will prove more damaging in the long run.

"One wonders why cops couldn't just have sorted the issue by issue!"

One wonders indeed...

"...considering a law change to insist that only starting pistols which meet these requirements will be allowed."

:D

"...I'm not sure what worries me more - you quoting a Chris de Burgh song, or me knowing you're quoting Chris de Burgh song..."

Oh, very brave! A lesser man would have claimed to have Googled it. ;)

JuliaM said...

"God people are turning into wimps."

Working, I suspect, as intended!

"Tom Servo is having a lot of fun on that thread. :)"

Ahh, sometimes the local newspaper comment sections are better than the reports.

Mick Turatian said...

allcoppedout: Guns near schools? Why no law just excluding them for a mile?

Great idea. Let's say someone wants to take the most direct route from London to the Yorkshire Dales with a shotgun in its case in the boot of the car: how many times would it be necessary to leave and rejoin the M1 in order to comply with your proposed law?

Dr Evil said...

I learned to shoot at school. We had Lee Enfields. Now the CCF has SA80s (single shot). As for this idiot equating an air rifle to a firearm, it just shows how ignorant she is. High powered air rifles, classed as firearms, have to have a gun license too.

Anonymous said...

I would point out to the lady who thinks police should put a sign up pointing people who want to do shooting......that more kids are injured and killed by vehicles. Don't stop lazy mad parents driving too fast outside schools....perhaps the police should put a sign up about that too....seeing as it hasn't occurred to those concerned.

Hope the police got out quick enough to the lady's satisfaction and she never had recourse to say, "i could have been raped and murdered by the time you got here".

Sounds like the kind of woman who could make a story up about police sitting around and deliberately ignoring a street robbery...just thinking!!!

MU said...

A phillips screwdriver, a can of olive drab paint and a free afternoon, congratulations - A non-ridiculous BB gun.


Everyone on this comment thread should buy a crossbow ASAP while they're still legal without a licence.

Lerxst said...

"A lesser man would have claimed to have Googled it. ;)"

In that case, I'll go further and point out that my excuse is that it came before 'Lady In Red' and hence before he descended into pouring out nothing but sentimental drivel. Some of the earlier stuff was ok... I still quite like Crusader despite it's historical inaccuracies..

These days, Bill Bailey's nailed him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT8hVPUlIJ4

JuliaM said...

"These days, Bill Bailey's nailed him..."

LOL! Thanks for that! :)