Councillors - bah!

hickgun · 3rd Jul 2008, 16:29

One of our local councillors is running a hate campaign against airguns in our local newspaper. He's managed to persuade to council to urge the government to "do something".

I couldn't hold my tongue any longer, here's my letter to the paper;

"Dear Editor

I would like to correct some of the misleading information given by Councillor David R in respect of airguns in the previous two editions of the K Herald.

Contrary to Mr. R’s assertion, airguns are not treated like tins of beans or packets of crisps and there are controls over their sale. Airguns can only be sold by registered firearms dealers and can only be sold ‘face-to-face’ i.e. there can be no mail-order or internet sales.

In fact, there is a considerable body of legislation relating to the ownership of airguns and their use in the various Firearms Acts and the recent Violent Crime Reduction Act.

I suggest Mr R and his fellow councilors, instead of wasting valuable council time on re-inventing the wheel when it comes to the control of airguns, spend more time in learning about what they are talking about and in enabling and encouraging the police in enforcing the existing legislation. Furthermore, I certainly hope Mr. R didn’t deliberately mislead his fellow councilors, in council session, with his incorrect claim in respect of there being no controls on airgun sales.

Yours faithfully

xxxxx"

Lez325 · 5th Jul 2008, 13:19

well put

Les

kingo15 · 5th Jul 2008, 17:08

whoop whoop nice letter.

keep us informed if there is any reply

manthing · 6th Jul 2008, 23:05

i am sure if you posted full details of said councillor and the paper, a few suportive letters and e-mails could be sent their way.

hickgun · 7th Jul 2008, 19:48

This week's edition should be out on Weds.

The editor did contact me, indicating he would want to do a story on the matter but I trust journalists just about as far as I could spit them so declined. I'll just have to see...

watch this space.

Biffo1262 · 11th Jul 2008, 17:03

Quite frankly, in my experience, if there were a league table for idiocy I reckon some local councillors would take up at least 75% of the top 100 places. When elected as councillor for some reason they seem to think that everything they say has to be believed and have no need to research their subject before pontificating as an expert. The problem is that they do the credibility of those Councillors who do know what they're about considerable disservice. I recently considered standing in the local elections but when I studied the standard of competence of the people I would be required to work alongside I just shook my head in disbelief and walked away. No matter how hard I would have worked for the serious issues, unless you were accepted as part of their little cabal, it would have meant compromising my own standards. Getting elected is the easy part but being able to make a difference without selling out is another matter altogether for if you are not an elected member of one of the major parties you will be marginalised and have no serious say in any matter at all! For my own part I am trying to get my local JP and a another council member to my club just to see how things are done. The JP has shown great interest all in the means of fairness and I believe he now has the wherewithall to make rational judgement about the type of people he has to deal with when it comes air gun & firearms offences. The Councillor? Not a word have I heard from either of my two local councillors which says it all.