3 years for being a complete idiot...

[yellowfin]

Even when I lived there, it was difficult to get a firearms certificate for a .22 rifle, and they've tightened up since then. You need to have somewhere safe to shoot it and locked storage (safe) to keep it. There's restrictions as to how many rounds you can buy at any one time, and the maximum number you could store (I was allowed to buy 500 .22 rounds at a time, and have up to 750 in stock). The police will check your storage at least at every issue or renewal, and may come whenever they like between those dates.

Your neighbors, friends and work colleagues will think that you are Rambo and have a screw loose, because after all, the only purpose of a bolt action .22 is to kill people or shoot Bambi, and everyone knows that the police will protect you if you need it.

Back then, there were shops, usually sporting goods shops, in most towns that sold rifles and ammo, but handguns have never been common in England and very few shooters ever owned them (in my lifetime anyway).

The firearms certificate will specify what you are allowed to buy (e.g. ".22LR bolt-action rifle with sound supressor" and when you buy it the dealer has to record serial numbers dates etc. on the certificate and notify the police. If you sell the firearm, the dealer records this also and notifies the police, who have the tendency to swoop down and confiscate the certificate before you buy another rifle if they can get away with it. But, as said, sound suppressors are legal, provided that you ask for them to be entered on your firearms certificate and provided that you don't use the politically incorrect term, silencer.

Why do these people still have a military? Getting conquered by any country on the face of the planet would have them more free and better off than they are now. They are nothing but pathetic slaves.

[Glock22Fan]

Why do these people still have a military? Getting conquered by any country on the face of the planet would have them more free and better off than they are now. They are nothing but pathetic slaves.

The sad thing, and remember I speak as an ex-brit, is that this is the way that they want it. They don't see it the way you and I do. I've had long and fierce arguments with some of them in the past. They just don't "get it."

[bigstick61]

Yes, I've had debates with many Brits who really do want this stuff, and some clamor for even more. I just come off amazed that the same people who gave us the political philosophies that this nation was largely founded upon have fallen this far. I was telling another Brit who has more in common with American conservatives to get out of dodge, but he is hesitant, although he regrets not staying in the U.S. when he was living here. While I'm sure there won't be a big difference on guns, hopefully things improve slightly if ZANU-Labour gets thrown out in the next elections.

[EOD3]

Could be married to a US citizen.

Probably the obvious answer. My brother married a woman from Siberia. She was dead-set on becoming a citizen even though it caused her some problems in Siberia.