[Gary A. Chelette]

It seems that even here in the USA, politicians want to ban this or that so as to get more votes and make us even more complacent.
As an American, I have the right to defend myself and I do not want anyone to take that right from me. As a Texan, they will have to pry my sword from my dead hands before I'll give it up!

Laws passed in the UK sometimes has an effect over here! Good luck to you all!

[Rob Miller]

Thanks Curt,I would seriously consider that if it werent for living where i do,I could not leave Skye,Like many who left for America Years before,I would always be haunted by the place,
We have not had any movement on the issue for a while,now the SNP have taken over the helm of Government here there seems to be a reluctance to see through the previous Legislative commitments of the Labour administration, it would be too much to hope for that someone had forgotten it all.
Last i heard we will be looking at a licence for the Vendor,and certain criteria must be met by the person buying a sword (if the live within Scotland that is) to ensure that they have a legitimate reason to own a sword.The onus on payment for a license will fall with us individual Vendors,if you happen to live in the middle of nowhere then you will probably pay a disproportionately large license fee,to cover all the administrative b***ocks involved.
The vote in England was 85% opposed to a Ban on Samurai swords,yet it is still being put forward,thats what i call proportional misrepresentation.

[Curt Cummins]

Rob,

I understand. I live where the Columbia and Willamette Rivers meet and have caught 20 lb. plus salmon in sight of my house and have a 12 thousand foot snow capped mountain as part of the skyline. Home is hard to beat. My family came here from the Highlands in the 1750's so America's our homeland now.

I always thank any Brits that I meet for the Clearances. It was the best thing that ever happened to my family. Still, I'd like to see Scotland someday.

Seriously, you guys need something like the NRA there to lobby for you and organize voting blocks to defeat politicians who infringe on your traditional rights and to elect those who will defend them. Contributions and lost or won elections get their attention notice better than letters.

Good luck in your fight.

Curt

[Justin King]

If opinions from this side of the water count, you have mine. I think the ban is mostly an honest albeit misguided attempt to address a serious problem but the mentality that this will actually have an effect on violent crime is kinda scary. If the children can't play nice with pointy things we'll just take them away???
The problem is behavior, weapons are just objects until a person picks one up with intent. They can be and are fabricated in prisons every day, by inmates who are criminals by definition, which tells you precisely how effective it is to address the problem by legislating the object. If they can be made in prison there is no hope whatsoever of disarming criminals on the street.
The precedent for this kind of legislation has been set however, ignore it at your own peril.

[Nick B.]

Rob,
You have to be kidding,85% opposed to the ban and they are still putting it forward? That sounds like a Dictatorship not a Democracy. They seem to forget that the sword is a major part of your history. Your country gained it"s independence at the tip of a sword.
I think it is about time we let our governments both over there and here know who works for who.

[Rob Miller]

yeah,well,its just my opinion,but i think everyone went to sleep here long ago,fed a diet of moronic reality TV shows,bland Consumerism and constant Surveillance by the most intensive personal surveillance system in the world today.People say things like 'that George Orwell was right',and go back to grazing,as one small Liberty after another are being chiselled out from under their moribund backsides.We have been made to feel impotent Politically because of the increasingly Homogeneous nature of our Political parties here,we used to have a saying in my younger Anarchist years 'theres no Government like No Government' but as i get older i can see that people cannot be trusted to act responsibly and respectfully to one another,they have become enraptured by the glamour of shopping,unable to satisfy the constant craving for new sensations,prepared to clamber over the bodies of their neighbours for the latest game console.
Uh-Oh!,I am beginning to foam at the mouth here,better go and take a Pill

[George Davidson]

... Rob is not alone feeling this way but as long as we have an electorate that votes based on the social situation 50 years ago, scare tactics or who their daily tabloid tells them to ... this country is going to continue its slow downward slide to some thing that even Orwell never foresaw.

[Raymond Deancona]

Didn't the English try to impose similar restrictive measures after the 1745 rebellion? This is just the same repression masked as "for the good of the community". Once again the politicians in order to hide the real problems underlying civil violence point at the tool rather than the glaring social disfunctions of poverty, joblessness and the related problems of drug abuse, depression, etc. For some reason politicians have sold the idea to the public that life is safe and fair, and they can legislate it so. Anyone who actually walks any street in an urban setting here in the States or Great Britain or European Union can see the truth is otherwise. Good Luck on stopping this short sighted and obviously self supporting legislation by the minister.

[Glen A Cleeton]

[Rob Miller]

Thats very true GC,thank you for clarifying that.of those who responded to the proposed Legislation 85% were against the proposal to 'Ban' samurai swords,including a former Officer with the Metropolitan Police.

[Bram Verbeek]

Why limit swords when knifes are the problem? A sword cannot be concealed easily, so that will never be a good weapon to bring to, say, a school. The only word of sword is the banning of it altogether, it was never stated that swords were a problem. If you wish to hurt someone, an axe becomes next in line, thereafter anything heavy, should everything be outlawed as long as it's not covered in pluche or foam?

Now banning swords as well as knives in a public location in the same way as guns seems a lot more senseible to me. (I do not know the laws there, here, a gun has to be in a locked container with its ammo in a different locked container)

[Lee O'Hagan]

[George Davidson]

slightly off topic but heres a recent article in the quality press about the present state of affairs with guns in england.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article3255689.ece

Remember guns were banned by law in the UK years ago... (seems criminals dont care about laws ... who would have guessed it)