spike.t
You might have a point. Not sure what caliber this guy had. And perhaps it was Zimbabwe. He was going to southern Africa, but which country I don't recall. Didn't realize the UK embargos that country.
And as for it being the pistol team, yes, I should have specified. Their pistol team has to leave the country. Pretty ridiculas, but that's the UK for you. I was there in 1999 working on an archeological diving expedition. Took part in a six diver team from my volunteer organization here with the UK groups, which included the government's archeological diving unit. The Brit volunteer who was leading the expedition "Operation Man-O-War" was a rather wealth leadeing citizen in the community of Ramsgate. I was at his quite lovely mansion, which he had turned into a high-end nursing home (for wealthy families apparently) and in his office I saw several machine pistols on the wall. They were all obviously non-functional with the huge gaping elongated holes through the barrel and receiver made by a torch. I said something like "Nice machineguns." I then said I had heard about their handgun ban a couple years earlier and asked if it effected him. His response was immediate and he was pissed.
"Don't EVEN get me started on that!" He then later told me he'd received, like everyone else, a letter from the government, listing his six collector piece handguns, worth a total of 6,000 pounds sterling (about $10,000 at that time), by description and serial number. It then informed him he had "X" number of weeks (I think it was three), to turn them in to his local Constable's station for destruction or he would be "arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law." Two short paragraphs, very abrupt, very curt, and threatening him with arrest if he failed to comply.
This is a man who was no criminal, and in fact was a well-known leader of the community and whose background was completely checked because he was receiving government payments for operating his nursing home.
They took his guns claiming he would be "fairly compensated." He said he received 1,800 pounds, or 30% of the actual value of the firearms. That's $3,000 for $10,000 worth of guns. He took a 70% loss. And he said he was lucky because most of the people he knew who also lost their guns got zilch... NADA... for their guns. There was a huge complaint and law suit over it going on at the time, but he didn't expect it to result in anything. It seems I recall in the news later the courts judged against the guns owners saying the nation was in debt and they weren't guaranteed anything, so too bad. I can't swear to that being it's been quite a while now, but I do recall the finding did NOT make my colleagues in the UK happy at all.
if a country is on the arms embargo list of the uk govnt such as zimbabwe then no they dont let you take your guns there. i think it is only the pistol team that cant practice in the uk, but shotgun, rimfire rifle and fullbore rifle shooting are enjoyed by many people.
