Should crossbows be banned
- Thread starter foxhunter
- Start date
🌶
This!!
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
I am really not sure. It’s a question where do you stop.
Fundamentally if you use any object, device, machine whether its a stone, stick, axe, kitchen knife, dildo, bottle, cricket bat, catapult, bow, crossbow, boot, belt, g string, motor car, gas bottle, toothbpick in order to threaten, intimidate, assault or cause actual harm to another it becomes and should be treated as a weapon, and penalty should go up accordingly.
Any if the above can enable an individual to cause more than if they were naked as the day the were born.
The the challenge that our law and society has is a ban culture. You cannot ban violence. You can simply prevent, and when it does happen prosecute. We don’t need more legislation we just need proper education and law enforcement.
But I was advised by a police officer here in Ediburgh at a residents meeting that City of Edinburgh Council no longer funds community policing, and the police no longer have a crime prevention role. There sole focus is on crimes that have been committed and making arrests.
This is highly highly expensive way of tackling the problem, when a local policeman could nipp a huge number of criminals in the making but simple words with youngsters before they get lost to the system.
In just the same way with a dog and simple raised eyebrows when its a new pup is all that’s needed, yet when they get to adult the only remedy is an injection.
Fundamentally if you use any object, device, machine whether its a stone, stick, axe, kitchen knife, dildo, bottle, cricket bat, catapult, bow, crossbow, boot, belt, g string, motor car, gas bottle, toothbpick in order to threaten, intimidate, assault or cause actual harm to another it becomes and should be treated as a weapon, and penalty should go up accordingly.
Any if the above can enable an individual to cause more than if they were naked as the day the were born.
The the challenge that our law and society has is a ban culture. You cannot ban violence. You can simply prevent, and when it does happen prosecute. We don’t need more legislation we just need proper education and law enforcement.
But I was advised by a police officer here in Ediburgh at a residents meeting that City of Edinburgh Council no longer funds community policing, and the police no longer have a crime prevention role. There sole focus is on crimes that have been committed and making arrests.
This is highly highly expensive way of tackling the problem, when a local policeman could nipp a huge number of criminals in the making but simple words with youngsters before they get lost to the system.
In just the same way with a dog and simple raised eyebrows when its a new pup is all that’s needed, yet when they get to adult the only remedy is an injection.
macfarlane
Well-Known Member
Fishing rods should be banned as well mine are hopeless.
Woodsmoke
Well-Known Member
I don't like crossbows. I don't see any reason for anyone to own one, to be honest. Having said that, there are plenty who feel exactly the way about firearms. Certainly, in the hands of the ungodly they're an absolute disaster, but again that can be said of many things. Look at the air rifle licensing in Scotland, for example? Exiting legislation more than covered the ownership and use of them, but because some drug-addled criminal halfwit in the middle of Glasgow used one completely irresponsibly and killed a child as a result the SNP decided to pander to the clamour of their voting majority and licensed them completely unnecessarily. It hasn't, and won't, make the slightest difference to anyone who decides to act out-with the law, and it'll be exactly the same with crossbows, kitchen knives, private vehicles, baseball bats, and practically anything else that could potentially be used to hurt people. Laws already exist to prevent (as much as reasonable possible) these things being used illegally, and it's past time these laws actually showed their teeth to those who wilfully break them. Ban crossbows? No, I wouldn't want to see that happen. Start making punishments really punish offenders? Yes, definitely!
bobthedug
Well-Known Member
I was actually involved in the incident in Easterhouse where the kiddie was killed. The accused’s defence was he was trying to shoot one of the firemen!
Many years later the police service were consulted and overwhelmingly rejected the requirement for the proposed new air weapon licensing.
And strangely enough, Kenny McAskill, the then Justice Minister, publicly stated that the public and police were asking for these new laws!
For what it worth, my wife who is still a serving cop in a role in which she regularly provides an early morning wake up call by means of taking the door down, tells me that nearly every house they visit, has a crossbow.
Woodsmoke
Well-Known Member
Isn't there something in law about it being illegal to have any item presented or located in such a way that it could be conceived it's only there for the purpose of assaulting someone? I.e. If I had a baseball bat/golf club/hammer leaning against the wall next to my front door to no apparent purpose, etc? In some of the area your wife must police I imagine it's pretty unlikely they'll be big fans of target practice. I'm an ex scheme-dweller myself, and I know only too well what some of the inhabitants get up to . . . . .
Absolutely. There's no point, beyond political virtue signalling, in drafting new laws when you don't enforce the one's you've got.
Who remembers the case a few years ago when a 12 year old boy in Wales was shot dead with a 12 ft/lb air rifle? He and his mates were messing around in his Dad's shed where he had left unsecured and unattended an air rifle and a tin of pellets. The kids got hold of it and started playing with it, pinging off pellets at things. Inevitably there was an accidental discharge and the lad was shot in the chest. The pellet penetrated his heart and he died.
At the inquest it was described as a tragic accident and there were calls to licence air rifles. But it wasn't an accident, it was criminal negligence. Accidents are untoward events which couldn't have been foreseen. An incident like this was entirely foreseeable, which is why at the time, it was already a criminal offence under the firearms act to allow minors unsupervised access to air guns.
Obviously the father was distraught and no action was taken against him because he was deemed to have suffered enough, though not, one would have thought, as much as his son. That is a legitimate judicial decision taken on compassionate grounds. But it might at least have been reinforced in the court and in the media that it is nevertheless a criminal offence punishable with a jail term, to allow underage children access to air guns, and people who leave air rifles lying around unsecured can go to prison. But it was never mentioned to my recollection.
It is pointless licencing something when there are thousands of untraceable examples of said articles already in circulation. Stable door and horses.
The law-abiding and conscientious people who come forward and declare their air guns aren't the people who posed any risk in the first place and aren't the target of the the legislation. The reckless or criminally minded who the lawmakers were trying to constrain will sidestep any legislation by not giving up guns which no one is aware they possess. So the law is toothless, punishes the law-abiding and introduces and extra bureaucratic burden to no effect.
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Apart from Pikeys.
bobthedug
Well-Known Member
I’m not aware of any such law which would be applicable in someone’s home.
If I’m truthful, I would actually advise some folk to do such a thing.
I remember in the 80s being surprised that almost every house I visited in a certain sink hole estate had a large ornamental sword on the wall at the mantelpiece. With grubby marks on the wallpaper at the handle due to the frequency of the sword being taken down and replaced! And those residents weren’t admirers of replica blades.
I remember working on the murder of a little lad and I had ended up searching chalets at a certain Butlins holiday camp which was used by the Glasgow Social Work dept to give problem families a short holiday by the sea. I was genuinely surprised on finding numerous swords and machetes. It seems that certain types took their favourite weapon on holiday with them!
And there was the old joke that was actually true, the large sports shop in Argyle Street, Glasgow which sold a couple of hundred baseball bats per year and only two or three baseballs!
I grew up in the shadow of the Ravenscraig steelworks cooling towers and never in a million years was it considered a sheltered upbringing.
As a young cop, I learned that some folk were from a different planet, never mind social group.
Woodsmoke
Well-Known Member
It was just something that popped into my head as part of the subject. I've probably half-remembered something I just overheard somewhere.
And yes, Motherwell was something else. I went to the Tech' there back in the day.
Sonicdmb73
Well-Known Member
I have watched some of the various Police camera action type programs. It was stated on more than one of them. After the use of the big red key and subsequent search. That the location of some items made them illegal (as it implied it’s intended use as a weapon). Now I will add that no explanation of what exact law was broken or what further than the apparent seizing of the items. Or for that matter if said items where later returned.
I don't understand why people always want to ban something they are not interested in.
Perhaps they might be better employed minding there own business.
I have hunted with bows/crossbows and found them excellent hunting tools.
And there is nothing to stop you hunting with them abroad.
So befor you start the banning lark, just think what might be on the list next.
Perhaps they might be better employed minding there own business.
I have hunted with bows/crossbows and found them excellent hunting tools.
And there is nothing to stop you hunting with them abroad.
So befor you start the banning lark, just think what might be on the list next.
andrew_shooter53
Well-Known Member
Well said Uncas, crossbows is just the start
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