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Yeah, as the UK is an island, we've pretty much only ever had to monitor some clearly defined locations to prevent arms from being distributed (borders, army ba
by adwf 12y ago
Yeah, as the UK is an island, we've pretty much only ever had to monitor some clearly defined locations to prevent arms from being distributed (borders, army bases, farms, legacy firearms, etc).
Now with 3D printing, they could be manufactured with ease anywhere within the country. It's a whole different situation for the police to be dealing with.
Mostly though, it's the massively reduced cost from a CNC mill to a 3D printer (that's why they're so exciting!). A £50k+ purchase for a mill and then the expertise/blueprints to program it is very prohibitive for the general population. Whereas the 3D printer for ~£1k with freely downloaded click-and-go plans from the internet? Almost anyone could scrape that together if they tried.
It's a tipping point situation that has really scary implications for any country that has gun control.
- logfromblammo 12y agoYou would think that the country that came up with the STEN gun would not be so foolish as to think that gun control is just a matter of watching the borders. Any cellar or garden workshed could be an arms factory. The dangerous thing about volume printers is not that they could be used to make weapons, but that you can't tell the difference between a machine used to make chesspieces and one used to make guns. Every owner could have a legitimate and innocuous reason to have it, and therefore you have no probable cause for additional scrutiny on anyone. With a CNC mill/lathe, if you don't actually need one to produce something like custom auto or motorcycle parts, using it to produce solid aluminum garden gnomes might be seen as suspicious rather than a plausible cover.
- dfc 12y agoI understand borders, bases and legacy firearms. But why farms?
- MarcScott 12y agoMainly pest control.
- dfc 12y agoVarmint rifles are not legacy firearms? Or do farmers get a special license for buying varmint rifles?
- bmelton 12y agoI'm guessing a large part of that depends on how you define 'varmint rifle'. To a lot of people, the AR-15 is a varmint rifle, and I'm going out on a limb and just guessing that it's either very difficult or impossible to get a license to own an AR-15 in the UK. As for the definition I grew up with (e.g., rimfire .22 and slightly higher power centerfire bolt actions,) my understanding is that, for the most part, those things are still accessible in the UK, if one jumps through the appropriate hoops.
- dfc 12y agoThank you, we have similar notions of what a varmint rifle is. My somewhat fluid ordering of rifles is: varmint -> plinker -> hunting -> assault -> anti-materiel. If your description is accurate, (and I have no reason to believe otherwise) the answer to my original question is "farms are a bad example and are simply a manifestation of legacy licenses." All of the other examples were categorical concerns
- bmelton 12y agoMy original thought, as pertaining to farms, was just that they're traditional shipping hubs. Lots of packages (feed, seed, grain, machinery) come in, and lots of packages (livestock, meat, produce) go out. If I were looking for a non-descript place to traffic guns through, I could do worse than a farm.
- celticninja 12y agofarmers can, and usually do, have shotguns. sometimes a .22 rifle or possibly a .303
- adwf 12y agoBasically, the main categories of firearm that are still allowed in the UK are shotguns, long barrel revolvers and small calibre rifles. They're almost exclusively used in rural areas (vermin, hunting, etc.). It's often the case when you hear of firearms related incidents, that the stolen shotgun (or whatever) gets tracked back to a farm.