Ok peeps its sad to say that the Brits and the Yanks have very different concepts on guns. For some its hard to understand how the Brits are so different in this area and so anti gun. However, it primarily comes from a couple of factors involving the last forty years of British history. The first being the actions of the Irish terror bomb campaign of the 1970s and early 80s, the actions of the communist groups such as Baader Meinhof, and the Basque separatists and IRAs close ties in the so-called European network of the time.

This lead to the start of a restricted access to firearms in around 1975 and calls for older weapons to be handed over, in the first of many unofficial amnesties to be held over the decades to come. With the only persons actually being allowed to keep firearms were to games wardens and licensed sportsmen. Even so firearms from other countries were remarkably easy to obtain through the old mail order systems and magazines such as Soldier of Fortune and collectors of course did such after all there was no real harm in it was there.

In 1987 that all changed in September of that year. Michael Ryan walked out of his house down the street and with an Ak47 sub machine gun started shooting his way through the town. Killing and injuring 16 people. Ryan in the end was killed in a confrontation with police. However the incident lead to the countrys largest crackdown on firearms in Britain in 15 years. Reinforced and strengthened legislation and the beginning of the instigation of Armed Response Units across the United Kingdom. In the next ten years over 150,000 firearms were recovered and seized and police policy has changed to the point where within six months of the Hungerford Massacre if someone believed a firearm had been spotted it took immediate priority to be investigated. This has involved incidents where if people did not respond to the knock by the police the door was broken down and police had the right to search without a warrant.

By the present day the laws relating to firearms have gotten to the point where even replica weapons, BB gun replicas (which are not classified as toys in the UK) and air rifles are all on the restricted list. To import, stock or try to sell them in the United Kingdom classifies depending on the power of the weapon as a misdemeanour. To actually possess a firearm in the United Kingdom now carries a mandatory two year jail sentence. Actually using a firearm adds another 5 to 10 years to the sentence for the crime.

However the one thing that is not apparent from all this information is that most British citizens welcome these restrictions. firearms to the British on some levels are anathema. Criminal organisations rely on knives if anything in their business or more creative means to enforce their order in the world. The average citizen has most probably only seen a gun in the real world once and thats during any major threat alert at a major travel centre in their local area carried by an armed police unit. The instances however of a firearm being used by the police in one of these incidents has been once in the last ten years.

OOC: For in game purposes this means that to even get the skill Firearms 1 it is amazingly hard, to obtain a firearm is currently nigh impossible and most supernatural groups would frown on one of their kind possessing such a weapon, After all a vampire held in a cell after dawn is such a masquerade breach its scarey. On the influence front you would need at least Street Influence 4 or Underworld 4 to obtain such an item and if your caught your char will be desanctioned as bail is not an option its your mandatory two year sentence.

The following information is copyright of the below and copied from the www.hmso.gov.uk

The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988

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STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS
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1988 No. 2019
CRIMINAL LAW, ENGLAND AND WALES CRIMINAL LAW, NORTHERN IRELAND CRIMINAL LAW, SCOTLAND
The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988
Made 17th November 1988
Coming into force 18th January 1989

In exercise of the powers conferred upon me by section 141(2) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988[1] , a draft of this instrument having been laid before Parliament and having been approved by each House of Parliament, I hereby make the following Order:
1. This Order may be cited as the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988 and shall come into force two months after the day on which it is made.
2. The Schedule to this Order shall have effect.

Douglas Hurd
One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State
Home Office

17th November 1988

SCHEDULE
Article 2

1. Section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (offensive weapons) shall apply to the following descriptions of weapons, other than weapons of those descriptions which are antiques for the purposes of this Schedule:
(a) a knuckleduster, that is, a band of metal or other hard material worn on one or more fingers, and designed to cause injury, and any weapon incorporating a knuckleduster;
(b) a swordstick, that is, a hollow walking-stick or cane containing a blade which may be used as a sword;
(c) the weapon sometimes known as a "handclaw" , being a band of metal or other hard material from which a number of sharp spikes protrude, and worn around the hand;
(d) the weapon sometimes known as a "belt buckle knife" , being a buckle which incorporates or conceals a knife;
(e) the weapon sometimes known as a "push dagger" , being a knife the handle of which fits within a clenched fist and the blade of which protrudes from between two fingers;
(f) the weapon sometimes known as a "hollow kubotan" , being a cylindrical container containing a number of sharp spikes;
(g) the weapon sometimes known as a "footclaw" , being a bar of metal or other hard material from which a number of sharp spikes protrude, and worn strapped to the foot;
(h) the weapon sometimes known as a "shuriken" , "shaken" or "death star" , being a hard non-flexible plate having three or more sharp radiating points and designed to be thrown;
(i) the weapon sometimes known as a "balisong" or "butterfly knife" , being a blade enclosed by its handle, which is designed to split down the middle, without the operation of a spring or other mechanical means, to reveal the blade;
(j) the weapon sometimes known as a "telescopic truncheon" , being a truncheon which extends automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in or attached to its handle;
(k) the weapon sometimes known as a "blowpipe" or "blow gun" , being a hollow tube out of which hard pellets or darts are shot by the use of breath;
(l) the weapon sometimes known as a "kusari gama" , being a length of rope, cord, wire or chain fastened at one end to a sickle;
(m) the weapon sometimes known as a "kyoketsu shoge" , being a length of rope, cord, wire or chain fastened at one end to a hooked knife;
(n) the weapon sometimes known as a "manrikigusari" or "kusari" , being a length of rope, cord, wire or chain fastened at each end to a hard weight or hand grip;
2. For the purposes of this Schedule, a weapon is an antique if it was manufactured more than 100 years before the date of any offence alleged to have been committed in respect of that weapon under subsection (1) of the said section 141 or section 50(2) or (3) of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979[2] (improper importation).

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Notes:
[2] 1979 c.

2002 Update

2. This Order extends to England, Wales and Northern Ireland only.

3. The Schedule to the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988[2], which specifies offensive weapons for the purposes of section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, shall be amended by the insertion into paragraph 1 of that Schedule after sub-paragraph (n) the words - " (o) a disguised knife, that is any knife which has a concealed blade or concealed sharp point and is designed to appear to be an everyday object of a kind commonly carried on the person or in a handbag, briefcase, or other hand luggage (such as a comb, brush, writing instrument, cigarette lighter, key, lipstick or telephone).".

John Denham
Minister of State

Home Office
22nd June 2002

How to describe the British education system. An imaginative creation capable of diversity and accepting of reasoned thought and adaptation. Otherwise known as a mess. A really big mess. The education system has come under attack again and again recently. For elitism and for lowering the bench mark on what it takes to pass simultaneously. Each year when the future of Britain sits down to take their GCSEs somehow more and more get a top flight mark, and each year the question is raised in the press of: are the exams too easy and is this all a government exercise in: hey now everyone is smart and its all down to us. Somehow ignoring the fact that society is somehow becoming more illiterate at the same time as the education system, supposedly, gets better and better.

Secondary or High School:
Unlike American systems were one certificate carries everything us Brits seem to specialise in specialising our subjects. At 14 years of age children are advised or told what courses to put their name down for their GCSE subjects. Then study those subjects to the point of destruction or complete and utter hatred, whichever comes first. At the end of two years the future generation takes their formal exams and enters the world of the adult.. Or they continue onwards and upwards the education train.

College:
Yep to get to University at 18 you have to study at college for you A levels which is essentially refining that wonderful knowledge you already gained to a heightened level. Also at this point is when the student population starts learning of the wonder of pubs, sex and many other wonderful toxic delights. So two years is definitely needed to complete this refinement of your education.

University:
The place all students want to get to after all this is the place where you get to escape your parents at last, learn how the world really works, become one of the young genius in your field and leave so horribly in debt after the first year, your still paying the debt off when your 45. Yep university life is great, three years the potential for a degree and your in debt to your government to the tune of 25,000 by the time your finished due to the loans you have to take out with them. Does this system seem slightly screwed to you?

You know the worst thing though, a degree, three years of hard work (possibly) does not even guarantee you a job now it possibly guarantees you at best entry in a modern business. Kinda sad that isnt it?

Imperial College:
This is the premier science and medical institution in the University of London group, opened in 1907 and coming up to the 100th anniversary of its founding Imperial hits the highest of standards of the non red brick universities even if by some its still classified as taking baby steps.

Kings College:
Is almost the closest rival of Imperial in London at the moment but its greater age and larger facilities means it is one of the best red brick Universities in the region. Like Imperial it is part of the University of London coalition.

Smog, fog, heat haze, you never really know what to expect in London. Even the weathermen of the BBC never know what to expect, come on they missed a hurricane in 1986 and said it was going to be sunny. Still London weather is becoming less erratic, summers its hot, Winters its cold thats about all you can expect right now. Oh yeah and theres always the possibility of pigging rain, no matter how hot or cold the weather is.

Daily and 5 day weather forecasts can be seen here.

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