And who said a well armed society is a polite society?

Doing a speech in class and need the year and quote reference.

Opps do not know.. Edited because I cant read.

Aviator

I don't think there was a complete ban in England.  My brother-in-law's family is there and his uncles own the John Wilkes Gun Shop.  If you know anything about very high class sporting guns, you've probably heard of them;  they make custom firearms for the upper crust, royalty, etc.

[img]http://wsphotofews.excite.com/015/oH/Aq/PL/u064808.jpg[/img]

I was wondering what you meant.  LOL!

I think the quotes by Robert A Heinlein.

Don't know the date. I didn't know ALL guns were banned in England.

If not all what guns were banned?

I hope my facts are straight.  

Go to [url]http://www.open.gov.uk/[/url] and do a search for gun laws.

M15A2:

The quote is "An armed society is a polite society".  It is from the novel "Beyond this Horizon" by the science fiction author Robert Heinlein.  He is quite popular, and you should be able to find the novel in your public library.  The ISBN number is 0451166760

England has not banned all guns.  I believe that the firearms still legal to possess are:

Single and double barreled shotguns (pump and semi autos are banned).
Bolt action rifles (semi autos are banned).

There are tons of draconian restrictions on even the above, relating to acquisition, possession, storage, approval at the whim of a government bureaucrat, membership in gun clubs, etc.  If you are doing a speech in class, it is correct to say that:

IT IS ILLEGAL IN BRITAIN FOR ANY CITIZEN TO POSSESS ANY GUN FOR SELF DEFENSE, EVEN IN HER OWN HOME.

Good luck with the speech, and thanks for speaking up for our rights.

I wrote an article about English gun control that is currently available at EnterStageRight.com.  It's entitled "A Sterling Example" and it covers the progressive disarmament of the English population from 1920 to the present - and its results.  You can read it at [url]http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0301sterling.htm[/url]  I think it will cover all of your questions with the exception of the quotation, which others have accurately pointed out is from Robert A. Heinlein.

Oh, one thing I did not point out in that article that others in here have, only single and double-barreled shotguns are allowed now.  No pumps, autos or bolt shotguns.  Pump-action rifles got banned too, but I believe they still allow lever-actions (go figure).

[sniper]

I never studied the details, but you can go all the way back to William Wallce, and later, Bonnie Prince Charlie & the Jacobite Rebellion.  England did not allow possession of not just firearms, but any weapons during the occupations of the "rebellious" territories such as Scotland.  The tyrants in the U.N. and Fed.gov want to disarm us for the same reason.  
"Sic Semper Tyrannis"  

A big chunk of English gun laws passed in the 50's, '54 I think. Since then, their homicide has increased steadily. The total ban on handguns went down in 1996 I believe, after the Dunblane shooting. No handguns allowed, at all.

What got passed in the '50's was "you can't defend yourself" laws - no weapons for self-defense allowed, including knives, tear/pepper gas, clubs, guns, NADA.  [b][i]THAT'S[/i][/b] when violent crime started climbing.  It's grown over 900% since 1954, and is now higher than the U.S.'s.  However, the English [i]homicide[/i] rate is very low, and has [i]always[/i] been very low, [b]regardless[/b] of the firearms laws on the books.  Interestingly enough, though, since handguns were [b]banned[/b], homicide with handguns has reached new highs.  

Disarming the law abiding really works, doesn't it?

[sniper]

In England there were several restriction. Actually laws in England are as follow:
-ban of ALL HANDGUNS, from .22 L.R. to 45 ACP. ALL!!
-ban of auto and semiauto rifles. British import AR15 and clones WITHOUT the gas systems.

next to be banned: Shotguns, air pellets guns and muzzle loaded black powder guns.

search for the complete story:

[url]http://members.aol.com/gunbancon/Main.html[/url]

Let them learn the hard way, and hopefully someone will learn something from it.