In response to Keith writing that he didnt recall a lot of resistance in the past to anti gunners chipping away at gun ownership here in the UK I posted as
way of explanation that post Dunblane many handgunners had no interest in continuing with pistol target shooting and I was one of those.
The pressure for the ban didnt come from anti gunners with an agenda but from parents and relatives of the children that had been murdered ,see the Snowdrop campaign, and the general population in the hope that the banning of handguns would decrease the likelihood of another mass school shooting.Those sentiments were acted upon by the right wing conservative government of the time and finalised after the election by the newly elected Labour government. I sympathised with those sentiments and to date 14 years later there has not been any shootings on school premises.
The greatest majority of pistol shooters in Scotland were club target shooters whose weapons werent kept for personal protection or in order to oppose a tyrannical government so the mindset in surrendering weapons was different to what you have in the US .
There were of course people who competed in long range shooting, practical pistol and police pistol competitions amongst others who had invested considerable amount of money time and effort in their hobby and were obviously angry that they were to lose their equipment and their hobby. Many reinvested what compensation they were given and took up pistol calibre lever action rifle shooting on the same ranges and a lot moved on to other rifle or shotgun disciplines. I have never spoken to anyone who lost their pistols who expressed the sentiment that the pistols loss would put them at the mercy of a tyrannical government.
As far as I am aware there is no organisation calling for the relaxation of the laws to permit hand gun ownership for general personal protection in Scotland.
We have a country which thankfully has limited access to firearms for personal protection and so the population has no need to arm themselves to level the playing field. Im not aware of any fear of the government in Scotland it is working well for its people and I sleep easy at night.
Im sorry if this outlook disturbs any on the double gun forum but it is a truthful account and serves to inform and is not intended to compare your country laws or people ,the post is not intended to antagonise but to indicate that opinions differ.
I dont consider myself anti gun ,and I didnt vote to ban hand guns though I am indifferent to their loss I gave mine up willingly because I had no need of them for protection and I had no fear that a tyrannical government was waiting on the sidelines to control the country.
I will post separately to address points raised in responding posts.