Growing up in Germany, restrictions of gun ownership was just a way of life – you did not really consider owning one of those dangerous things.

That actually is not quite true in my case. I had once been beaten up by some drunken thugs, with a great danger that they would also do something nasty to  my littel sister being with me in my car (fortunately nothing happend in this department). At this time I had the thought of how good it would have been had I had the chance of self defense, instead of just waiting till they were done with me and then put a cold compresse on my swollen eyes.

My thoughts went even a bit further. One of the baddies had actually been apprehended right away and went to the slammer for a while, and I was worried that he would hold a grudge because I had been the one who identified him.

So, I actually did file an application for a hand gun license with the local police. To my surprise a cop actually showed up at my house and interviewed me. I must have flunked that badly because I never heard from them again. By the way, the baddie never actually showed up at my door to beat me up again.

About a decade later the situation was remedied by the fact that I moved to the US and one of my first actions was to arm myself. Since then things here in the US have gotten a lot more restrictive and I had to give up my rocket launcher – – – just kidding!

But I kept an eye on all things connected with self defense and gun restrictions. One of the countries with very strict laws against self defense is, as far as I know, the United Kingdom. There you actually become a criminal when you defend yourself with deadly force.

Therefore I was surprised when I got a link request from a British company – Farlows – that caters to shooters. In its website it actually has keywords like Men’s and Women’s Shooting Jackets and Shooting Accessories. So there is a gun culture in Great Britain!

Even though this is all about sports it is still comforting that the Brits have not allowed their masters to totally disarm them. Once all this turns around you will be able to buy rocket lauchers in the finer shopping areas of London.