BBC news: Catapult ban petition to get government response

[JollyGreenGiant]

This was published 4 days ago, but I just found it:

Wildlife campaigner's catapult petition to get government response

A Parliamentary petition started after dozens of attacks on birds has reached 10,000 signatures.

www.bbc.co.uk

Apologies if this should go in Gun Related Politics, but it isn't exactly gun related so I thought it should go here.

What do you think will happen? Some knee-jerk legislation banning catapults, or not much? We all put a rubber band between two fingers and used them to launch bits of paper during school (or was that just me?), so do you think this would be a deadly weapon of mass destruction if you put the same band across a twig?

They have non-hurty uses for launching fishing bait, or as children's toys. Legislating against such a simple and easy to make item would be nearly impossible.

Mr Rogers said he hoped the government response would "recognise there is an issue with catapult crime, and not just fall back on saying the current legislation is sufficient".

"The biggest part is carrying in public. No-one should be carrying any sort of weapon in public."

Well, it's already a crime to carry things like catapults, bows, spears, a bag of bricks, or an air rifle in public without good reason. It is also most definitely a crime to fire them at swans, passing cars, and people you don't like. More laws are pointless without enforcement, which is clearly the part that is lacking.

 

[OldStock]

It's not legal to fly a kite now, without a training course is it? Let along a simple blow pipe from some tube and bit of paper.
It's funny we grew up being able to do so much more, but strangely London was not so staby, I wonder what changed.

 

[Squirrel_slayer]

I can’t see a lot changing to be perfectly honest, this isn’t the first and won’t be the last time this has been tried and nothing has changed. The last one gained a lot more signatures and 10,000 only means they have to acknowledge it not do anything about it.
You have nailed a lot of the points there, you can slap a band on all sorts of things and go out and kill a wild animal, the catapult didn’t kill it, an idiot with a catapult did, there are plenty of other ways they can do it and the ones that are likely to, already have catapults so a ban won’t affect them, just us legitimate shooters.
The media also seem to have a very anti agenda on the subject, there was a swan shot near me recently and the Hampshire chronicle and all the affiliated local newspapers posted the story, with a photo of the X-ray of an air rifle pellet embedded in the animal, the title was swan shot with air rifle or catapult…
We have had some positive media coverage at least recently, Adam Rayner of slingshot world magazine and John Jeffries of JJCC recently appeared on radio 2 putting us in a good light, field sports Britain and the travellers times also filmed at a recent competition I attended, although both not mainstream and seen by many it’s a step in the right direction.
When the last petition was in full swing a few reporters and interested parties joined some of the Facebook groups and all left with a very different view of the community luckily.
If anything was to change I think they could potentially classify them as a “weapon” rather than a toy as they are now. The laws surrounding them in theory wouldn’t change as they are already in place but harsher sentences could be given for their misuse, I for one would support that and hopefully flush out some of the bad apples putting all of our names and our hobby in a bad light.

 

[Sharpsman]

They haven't had much success with hand gun crime or people running around with matchete's slashing and stabbing each other in inner cities . Time and money would be better spent stopping this stuff going on and hard line policing rather than worrying about catapults .it's like talking and worrying about a mouse in the room when theres a tiger sat in there as well .

 

[Neil123]

They will probably be banned.
A government risk assessment will see no down side to doing this as the only people who it will truly affect will be the likes of us, and they don't care what we think.
On the other hand, if they don't ban them they get the the Loud Crowd screeching in their ear again every time there is another incident.

 

[Squirrel_slayer]

This was the government response from one petition last year just in case anyone hadn’t seen it.

 

[Ashf9999]

Let’s hope nobody in the government reads the Bible. There’s a clearly well documented case of homicide involving two chaps called David & Goliath, a length of leather and a small rock.

 

[Daniel492]

I personally can't see them having a ban on slingshots. But I can see them putting legislation in place to ban hunting with them, a bit like they done with bow and arrow in 1965 I believe. Plus it would be a absolute nightmare to police a ban.

 

[mjr1983]

Let’s hope nobody in the government reads the Bible. There’s a clearly well documented case of homicide involving two chaps called David & Goliath, a length of leather and a small rock.

Ha ha, very true fella

 

[Grey Man]

Well, that's 10,000 people the gene pool could do without.

 

[Bill.B]

Let’s hope nobody in the government reads the Bible. There’s a clearly well documented case of homicide involving two chaps called David & Goliath, a length of leather and a small rock.

Not to mention incest.

 

[Ben Hur]

Let’s hope nobody in the government reads the Bible. There’s a clearly well documented case of homicide involving two chaps called David & Goliath, a length of leather and a small rock.

That was a sling. They are used to today particularly by Gazan youth against Israeli troops.

 

[bill57]

Once again they completely miss the point that criminals do not care about laws. There are already laws in place to deal with these offences and making more will not change anything.

Handguns are banned but there is still handgun crime, the same will be true for machetes as well.

 

[martin st ledger]

we used to make overgrown pea shooters when we were kids for firing home made darts, they were made illegal also, its like they want to ban all that makes growing up in the countryside fun.
I bet soon they will make a group of more than 3 boys in the same place an illegal gathering.

 

[Blackhill]

I'm not sure if they miss the point or just don't care .It's just another step of the jackboot on the road to totalitarian rule .The further we get away from the actual 1980's the closer we seem to be getting to Orwell's 1984 .

 

[martin st ledger]

I'm not sure if they miss the point or just don't care .It's just another step of the jackboot on the road to totalitarian rule .The further we get away from the actual 1980's the closer we seem to be getting to Orwell's 1984 .

And we are paying good cash for it to be done.

 

[Redboat01]

Let along a simple blow pipe from some tube and bit of paper.

I wonder how many criminal incidents there have been involving a blowpipe. I suspect it's zero.

 

[martin st ledger]

I wonder how many criminal incidents there have been involving a blowpipe. I suspect it's zero.

Lots of free fun was had though, thats what they dont like.

 

[Mostly Harmless]

It's a lot easier for the government to stop indigenous folk using catapults than it is to stop the "new" folk waving large blades about and stabbing people.
For one the former mainly obey the laws.

 

[OldStock]

I wonder how many criminal incidents there have been involving a blowpipe. I suspect it's zero.

Kids were up to all sorts back in the day, just because you "suspect" something that does not make it true.

But kites, I think everyone can get behind that regulation, the kite wars of the 70's and all those deaths, David Pelham was a ring leader I 'suspect', he certainly disseminated materials for the building of.
Glad those dangerous days are behind us!
SMH.