Nigel, nice to see someone from our Channel Islands on site. I understand that you, along with the Isle of Man have rather liberal guns laws that our American Cousins may envy. Are they still o.k. or have you suffered like the rest of the British Isles too? Lagopus.....
Hi Lagopus,
For readers who may not be familiar with the Channel Islands (about 100 miles south of the English coast and around 20 miles from France), the islands are British but, by several accidents of history, they are independent of the English parliament and islanders' allegiance is direct to the Crown. Here in Jersey we have our own legislature and our own laws, as does Guernsey, separately.
When the UK banned handguns and self-loading rifles, Jersey did not follow suit, and we can still possess both. The licensing system is similar to the UK; however, all barrelled weapons are on licence (air weapons, long and short rifled arms and shotguns) and there is a single licence rather than separate shotgun and firearms licences as in the UK. Permission must be obtained for the acquisition of each item. In practice this isn't a major difficulty. Shooting is one of Jersey's most popular sports. I say 'sport' because hunting is effectively restricted to vermin, plus pheasants under certain circumstances.
I doubt that many US shooters in more liberal states would be to happy if our restrictions were imposed on them!
As far as I know, the Isle of Man has similar firearms legislation to Jersey, but I am open to correction.
N.
