In searching for some toy guns (which due to political correctness you simply cannot get any kind of toy gun in Britain) I gave up as you can't buy them nor import them.

Anyway, I came across this site (I'm not interested in airsoft, btw): http://www.hobbytron.com/SpringAirsoftRifles.html. But they're like so cheap to be untrue, about $20. If I price up an equivalent airsoft gun from UK they are about $500. What's the obvious thing I'm missing?

Here in Hawaii, people load up on assault rifles and go shooting with their kids!
Airsoft guns however will never be banned in the US because of the simple fact that the 2nd amendment allows the right to bear arms, even at a rally where the president is giving a speech, as long as its open carry. I assume Britain has a much lower incidence of gun related deaths much like Japan where guns are completely outlawed. Airsoft guns are almost free in America much like the site you showed, because its California. California has become the poorest state in America with 60 billion dollars in debt btw. But anyways its time to stock up on some real weapons because when the govt fails and Arnold goes back to 1985 to kill John, we'll be needing something against those T-1000's and airsoft will not work against them.

All I was saying though, is at $20 you seem to get a lot for your money. You can't even buy the worst plastic toy cap gun for that much here.

It might be the taxes because if GB doesn't want someone to have one, that is the first way most governments can slow sales, before outright banning them.

AirSoft guns aren't really "toys", though with the proper supervision and safety equipment should be harmless... The replica models that look almost indistinguishable from the real firearms are particularly inappropriate for children though. The last thing you need is your neighbors calling the cops because they saw the next door neighbors' son with an assault rifle and then he gets tackled or shot during a misunderstanding with the police. People in countries with strict gun laws are ridiculously paranoid about the thought of guns, probably because they themselves can't have them and are terrified of others that do.

In this case, you should not consider anything powered with gas, as they're likely too powerful, and probably not considered toys by law (obviously I can't tell you how this is in your country ... in Germany and Austria, anything below 0.7 J is considered a toy, if I remember that correctly, and up to 5 (Germany) or 7 (Austria) J [again, these values are drawn from memory] can be carried without a permit, but this is definitely already too much for "fun stuff", you could do some serious injuries with these).

Shooting in the garden (again, speaking for Germany and Austria) is also only allowed if it's guaranteed that no projectile can leave the premises. So you have to pick a weak enough "weapon", surround your property with bullet-proof walls and/or restrict the shooting range within your property (so a projectile will always land on your property).

That said, toys are usually quite cheap (i.e., less than 250 USD).

What, and you think telling the drug runners No! is going to change anything? They're running an illegal business and a potentially very profitable one at that. As long as they can get away with it the law isn't going to deter them.

Of course the drug dealers are purchasing all of their weaponry from legitimate gun shops. It's not like they can ship crates across the Atlantic or hijack trucks or anything. It's not like gang affiliates would ever sign up for the U.S. forces. Obviously, they walk into the gun store, show their ID, and wait 3 days for the criminal record check like everybody else.

There are good reasons for allowing citizens to lawfully purchase assault rifles. The bad guys, whomever they may be, are always going to have them whether you permit them to or not.

You sure like your Godwins, don't you?

Cause it's not like the American armed forces need assault rifles. You can just get rid of the armed part and just call them forces. They probably don't need guns anyway.

Also, it's not as if some of the best assault rifles come from Europe and Asia. Heckler and Koch? Who are they? Well, fine, you really can't prevent assault rifles from being manufactured elsewhere in the world, but it's not like anybody would be able to smuggle them into America. I mean, if they could smuggle guns in then who knows what else... Pretty soon somebody would realize they could smuggle drugs in and... Ohheywaitaminute.

It's not as easy as just banning guns. The people that do the things you're afraid of aren't deterred by laws. You can take whatever freedoms away from the people that you want, but the outlaws are going to continue to do as they please and you can't stop them until they've already done it. Assault rifles in the hands of responsible and lawful citizens is not a problem. There's no need to take assault rifles away from them.

How about start by citing your source.

The U.S. is a very different place than England or Japan. There are so many differences that it's nearly impossible to make a simple comparison of gun related deaths. All of the statistics I've seen for gun violence in America versus <gun-controlled-country-here> have been comparing apples to oranges (for example, they'd state how many more gun-related deaths America had, but without factoring in population, density, or other related factors).

I recently saw a news report on an American channel discussing the politics of gun-control. IIRC, they said that when gun control was enforced in Washington^[1] (I don't recall if it was the city or state) gun violence actually increased. The explanation was simply that the criminals still had their guns, but were less concerned with their victims fighting back. One prison inmate interviewed said that it's a lot scarier breaking into a home knowing the owners could be armed too. And that makes perfect sense. The bad guys aren't bullet proof either. He said gun control laws wouldn't stop him from getting a gun though. Why would they? Laws didn't stop him from robbing people. Prison does that.

There was also a gun-proponent telling the story of when a gun saved his life. I don't recall the story, but you could tell he was a strong believer in guns and felt that he owed his life to his right to own one.

The majority of gun violence in America is almost certainly in select neighborhoods that are gang or smuggler influenced (many of them in low-income neighborhoods). Sure, New York is known for having its really bad neighborhoods, but there are still millions of citizens in the city that feel perfectly safe walking down the street everyday. The inevitable happens to a few of them (as it does in every major city in every country), but compared to the entire population it's almost negligible (obviously, or the population wouldn't last long). Edit: I don't get the impression from any of A.cc's American members that they're afraid of walking down the street, but if they are I don't think gun laws would change it.

England has its own problems with crime. It's certainly not a crimeless country. And Japan has the fscking Yakuza. You don't think they're armed? The difference in gun crime can be largely attributed to the vast differences. Making a realistic comparison would probably require lots of data and deep analysis. I don't think gun control would lower gun related deaths in America at all.

They don't teach American geography in depth in Ontario, at least not when I was in school (there were probably optional classes, but geography never interested me). At least I have an excuse.

I know that, that was the chutzpah moment!

On a side note, Americans are savage animals, your reasoning for killing someone does not apply to a coyote.