Lagopus is spot on. I buy British guns that are in proof because it sets a high standard of safety the consumer can have confidence in. What prompted me to create this thread was a recent visit to a gunsmith who had what appeared to be an almost new Ithaca NID 20b hanging off his wall. The gun looked very nice with the exception that the right barrel from just ahead the breech to about 25 cm was filleted wide open. The gun looked nice, but barrel wall thickness was less than .010". Obviously, some rogue redid the gun and then passed it off to an unsuspecting consumer. As the story goes, this gun was given to a kid, who shot the damn thing and was fortunately unharmed. As a physician, however, I could see where serious injury could have happened.....like that a plastic surgeon, hand surgeon, ophthalmologist or undertaker would deal with. This really got me thinking about how we have no checks and balances with altered guns here in the USA and that this incident probably would not have happened in the UK because the gun would not have passed proof and would have been thrown in a junk pile where it belonged. So, gosh, I don't know if a proof house is the answer but I am convinced we need to do a little better keeping things in check with these altered guns.
