oh, for fox sake...!

... ...

Be true to yourself. That way happiness lies...

Foxes - Pests to some, amazing animals to others.

Cats - pets to some, to others killers of millions of other animals

Personally, I like the fox and admire how it's adapted to urban living.

What worries me more is the number of people here who own guns.

Good post Stooby

Bit like the wild west here, thinking of re-adapting my old Luger I was given, purely for protection if ever the big day comes.

stooby wrote:

Foxes - Pests to some, amazing animals to others.

Cats - pets to some, to others killers of millions of other animals

Personally, I like the fox and admire how it's adapted to urban living.

What worries me more is the number of people here who own guns.

Its like Whipsnade Zoo in our garden at night - Foxes, Badgers, Roe Deer, Muntjac Deer, Cats and worst of all rats. Most of our neighbours keep chickens and where you get chickens you get rats. Thankfully they readily take the sachet's of poison back to their nests and all is quiet for a few months.

Can cope with most things but Badger crap has just got to be the worst thing. Not to keen on the cats crapping on the garden and especially on the grass. Don't you just love it when the lawn mower hits some lovely fresh stuff

We also get the occasional Highlander if we forget to shut the gates.

Click image to enlarge

stooby wrote:

Foxes - Pests to some, amazing animals to others.

Cats - pets to some, to others killers of millions of other animals

Personally, I like the fox and admire how it's adapted to urban living.

What worries me more is the number of people here who own guns.

Hi Archie98,

What worries me about people owning guns? Er.. well, they tend to be quite dangerous things. Especially in the wrong hands. Designed for killing things I believe.

Good job we have to go through a few hoops to get them then...

I think most people would be surprised how common they are in the UK, legally I'd say its close to 10% have them if you include NI in your stats. I believe the last figures I saw for England/Wales were from 2011 and there was a total of around 1.8m in the UK legally held which with some man maths is about 4% of the population, Scotland and NI would bump it up considerably.

Held a licence since I was 17, so far I've not killed anyone

The gun is only wood and metal there is more people killed with cars than shot in the UK at the end of the day both are safe until you put a nutter behind them.

Hi Archie98, Gingerlord,

Indeed I think everyone would be surprised at how many people own guns.
I agree it's not the gun itself that's the problem but the person using it and I agree that cars etc are more dangerous in that many more people are killed injured by them every year.

The thing is though, the primary purpose of a car is for transport.
The primary purpose of a gun is to kill something. That's where it loses its appeal for me. I just don't get the fascination with them. Each to their own though.

Clay pigeons aren't alive and cannot be killed. The primary purpose of a gun is to shoot at a target. 
Hung like Einstein, smart as a horse.

stooby wrote:

What worries me more is the number of people here who own guns.

stooby wrote:

The primary purpose of a gun is to kill something. That's where it loses its appeal for me. I just don't get the fascination with them. Each to their own though.

I think the quote was : "We have the right to bear arms, we have the right to arm bears, whatever the hell we want to do"  
Hung like Einstein, smart as a horse.

It something along that  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Npinks, I understand the use of a gun as a tool for pest control etc. There it's being used as a tool.
I guess I find it hard to understand when people start using a gun to kill for 'fun'.
As for clay pigeon shooting, fair enough, no harm done there. I've even tried it myself once. Happy to hand the gun back over at the end of it though. No desire to have a collection at home.
Hey, as I said, each to their own.
Last year I was walking on the Pennine Way along the Tees. Some bloke was on the other side of the river with a rifle over his shoulder. Every now and then he'd stop and shoot at something. I never could work out what he was shooting at until he got a little careless and shot in our direction. The shot hit a post a foot from my partner and the ricochet nearly deafened me. Now, I'm assuming he was legal and had every right to be there doing what he was doing but I never thought I'd see the day I'd be dodging bullets on a public right of way. In my mind that should never have been possible. I would have called the police but had no mobile signal (thanks O2). Would he have been pulled up for being careless?