strathspey@strathspey.org:52644

GOSS9@telefonica.net

Re: No more sword dances?

June 3, 2008, 3:45 p.m. (Message 52644, in reply to message 52611)

Here in Spain it is very difficult to own and possess a fire arm of any 
kind. When I moved here, my contaner had three, pistol, rifle, and 
antique rifle. Inherited, from father, through grand parents. I 
qualified as an expert marksman in the service, and continued to shoot 
with borrowed weapons for a shart time after leaving the service, got 
bored with the company and quit.

When I moved here, my container, loaded in the U.S. was not only 
inventoried, but mapped. As a result, when it arrived in Spain, the 
easily found fire arms were confiscated, and unless I take action 
making them legal, they will be auctioned off at the end of 10 years. 
The antique rifle is fairly easy, if I ruin its value by drilling the 
barrel, I can have it and mount it on the wall, but his is not my idea 
of decoration, so would rather wait and get full value from its sale. 
As for the other two, I can recover the one of my choice, if I join an 
"Olympic" shooting team, pass a few tests, and the weapon of choice 
will be turned over to the armorer of my club, to be used by me only on 
site.

If the UK government is so afraid of the misuse of swords used in 
sword dancing, I see no reason why they can not do the same thing, 
respect tradition, and pretend* to keep the population safe from angry 
highland dancers, roaming the streets armed with claymores. 

Take those spectacular displays of arms in some historic castles. 
Simply declare them armories where personal swords for are dancing are 
deposited for safe keeping, and then only issued to authorized people 
to be used at games. I am sure there is a similar process already in 
place for the use of specific firearms in the U.K.