OFFTOPIC STILL:
Well, this is a moderated forum with rules, and when things go too far astray someone will come along and fix it..... which I think is a fine and good thing. And because this forum does have useful content, organized into fairly neat 'piles' (threads, sections, etc.) and so I try not to pollute a useful thread too badly. This one is more for amusement in the first place I believe so not as serious but I would not go on this long in a thread about, say, C-14 brakes, and if a moderator does.... well, moderate, this thread or my posts, I would not be upset or believe he / she to be in the wrong.
You may be surprised to find just how much many Americans know about not only your current gun regulations but also the history of arms control ('you' had 'arms' long before firearms: 'we' of course did not and that makes a HUGE difference). A lot of us follow it quite closely, as well as the new regulations and general 'gun control' stances in Australia, Canada and other places. For example, I know that <something like> 70% of your entire police force is unarmed although that is changing somewhat rapidly due to more recent terrorist events in your country. Many of us know that firearms are virtually banned in Australia as the result of pretty recent (less than 20 years if memory serves) "mass shootings". The UK has also recently stepped up an already (to us in the US) series of very restrictive firearms laws, resulting in the <virtual> banning of private handgun ownership and closely controlled and very restrictive (again from our point of view) firearms regulation for ALL firearms.
This is a very active and contentious issue in the US for the last 30 or so years and has really 'ramped up' since 2012. There are three sides (there are always three sides in all issues I think):
1) those in favor of tighter firearms regulation from a few more laws to the total ban (a la Australia) of private firearm possession. UPD: Unilateral Personal Disarmament to quote a pro- gun advocate, the late Jeff Cooper.
2) Those in favor of no more firearm restrictions and / or the reduction of existing regulation and control. [photo of Brian here]
3) The great majority who really do not care one way or the other, or if they have an opinion, it is a minor issue at best. [the same way I feel about another hot- button issue in the US, abortion, for example]
I will not go further in this thread because it is not appropriate IMO and will become instantaneously rabidly political, although the vast number of people who really like motorcycles tend to lean toward the pro- gun side, not the pro- gun control side, interestingly enough. I am 100% a majority vote of this forum, of forum members, would be pro- gun.
I will say however, that the majority of the rest of the first- world has an unbelievably incorrect opinion that there are lots of guns "around" here, and a visitor would see them everywhere: not true, other than boni fide, uniformed Law Enforcement Officers, and the second is that there are shootings all the time, all over the place in the US, again extremely incorrect. We do have a significant number of firearms deaths but we must use statistics to understand where, when and why: at my house, in my neighborhood, there has not been a shooting of any kind in decades. You will not see a firearm driving around, walking around, etc. Now, late at night, on the South Side of Chicago, it would be very very different but that is a very isolated place and you would not find yourself there by mistake while visiting or vacationing in the US of A. Yes we have a lot of guns and yes, any citizen in MOST (but not all) areas can buy, own and use a firearm but it is not the 'Wild West' and frankly, would not look strange to you (a Brit.) at all, whatsoever. If there is one misconception about the US I could clear up, that would be it. All the other horrible things you have heard about us is probably true but not the ones about firearms.
Brian
And thats a problem because
If you're ever bored you could always read up on the UK regulations
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/firearms-law-guidance-to-the-police-2012