I must have been 6 years old in Primary School in Liverpool England. We were given a special "bring a toy to school day" and I decided to take my cowboy hat, belt and holster with a very blue toy revolver with faux ivory handles.
It fired rolls of caps made of paper. It would have been 1964 and the lefty snowflake teacher (yes we had lefty snowflakes in England way back then) took the revolver from me and placed it on top of the blackboard where it stayed for the rest of the day.
She gave me a lecture of how much of a bad person I was. What a bullying COW what a bitch she was when I look back on it.
So I think that experience kindled a very healthy indestructible interest in firearms in me, which I still have to this day.
Wind it forward to 1983 when I got my 1st shotgun licence and an over and under 12g for clays. I'm still utter rubbish at clay shooting.
1987 London Metropolitan Police firearms training.............."Goddammit Private Pyle we've found something you can do"......I was top student on the course with Model 10 Smith and Wesson .38sp.
Same year obtained my civilian firearms licence, had a CZ 75, a Taurus .357 mag and a Taurus .22 revolver.
1996 a Scottish lunatic took a licenced Beretta 92 and other pistols into a school and murdered teachers and children. This scumbag was on the Police radar, so much so prior to these murders a Detecive Sgt submitted a report to pull his licence and confiscate his guns. He was over ridden and ignored by a High ranking officer.
Tony.B.LIAR wanted to get elected and managed it selling gun confiscation to the voting sheep, it worked for him, he got to be the Prime Minister.
1997 Blair amended the Firearms act. He moved cartridge pistols and revolvers to Section 5, thus re-classifying them the same as a machine gun. Effectively banning them to the general public. Me included.
They confiscated my ParaOrd .38 super, my Glock 22 and all my other pistols. I got paid for them, eventually.
So I got to thinking. Blair didn't touch muzzle loaders, revolvers included. After a bit of research I went and bought a stainless steel Pietta 1858 target model with adjustable sights in .44.
WOW that thing could shoot. I had the trigger done by a local gunsmith and it was amazingly accurate. I only ever shot it with Pyrodex P as I just couldn't be bothered getting an Explosives Licence to buy and store Black Powder.
2008 I retired. I sold all my UK guns except a 20g semi auto that the guys bought me for a retirement present and moved to Spain. I brought the 20g and a 12 Remington 870 with me.
2009 Got my 1st Spanish gun LICENCES (different categories required) for pistols, rifles and shotguns. So now I can and do own any guns Americans can and some you guys can't...............well not easily anyway.
So for old times sake I bought a brand new Uberti .44 stainless 1858 replica. Shoots just as good as my Pietta did. Added an original Colt 1851 Navy and a Ruger NMA in stainless to the collection.
So here I am today with FAR TOO MANY GUNS............ ![chuckles (7+"](https://coltcountryforum.com/smileys/default/chuckles.gif)
Very good story NecessaryEvil and a little history lesson tied up in there. I had no idea that Mr. T. Blair banned civilians from owning guns. I am trying to envision what that must have been like to have some government folks come to your house? Sounds like a very bad movie. I'm glad for you being in Spain and having your guns. ![cowboypistol :cowboypistol:](https://coltcountryforum.com/smileys/default/cowboypistol.gif)
Hola Buenas dias. Blair didn't ban civilians from owning ALL firearms, just cartridge firing handguns. They can still have smoothbore shotguns all action types, limited (permanently) to three rounds on a Shotgun Certificate. Min 24" barrels.
On a FIREARM Certificate they can have single shot, double barrel and manual magazine repeater rifles except pump action.
High cap smoothbore shotguns all action types min 24" barrel, .22 rimfire rifles incl semi auto and ..........LONG BARRELLED REVOLVERS. Minimum barrel length 12 inches fitted with a permenently attached "wrist brace"...............Finally any kind of muzzle loader.
Here in Spain I did have a Hatsan 12g pump fitted with a pistol grip and a 12" barrel, no problem here but such a gun is a bit complicated in the US ?