Just another example of outrageous overregulation. The law in particular discussed here will only affect a small number of people with specialized hobby interests, but nevertheless it is outrageous. Maybe you remember having a chemistry set when you were a child, having fun with different chemical reactions. Chemicals are used for all sorts of things. I have a family member who buys hydrochloric acid for rust removal from fuel tanks. One time he spilled some all over the ground and got all scared (was not really that dangerous). Nitric acid is a fairly common chemical. It is used for all sorts of things. Maybe it is not quite a household chemical, but no chemistry researcher could imagine having a laboratory without it. Beginning in 2016, it will be a crime to possess nitric acid. Not just buy or sell it. That means even if a chemistry researcher just makes some for his experiment. Or maybe he just mixes the wrong chemicals and some accidently forms. The punishment is two years for possession. https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...ensing-for-home-users-of-explosive-precursors It should be noted that acid concentrations under 3% are allowed, but these low concentrations are pretty much useless for anything requiring nitric acid. Nitric acid is one of those unusual chemicals where its chemistry is completely changed when it is diluted. At 3% artists cannot use it to etch copper, and amateur gold refiners cannot use it to dissolve gold. There are many people who use nitric acid to recover valuable metals from computer electronics scrap to make some extra money. Now they will require a license. There has been a war being waged on chemistry for some time— but this takes it to a whole new level. I have known the U.K. was a Nazi-like authoritarian state, and this only confirms it. So what is the supposed justification for this new law? Nitric acid could be used to make explosives. Oh no ! Not content just to take away all the guns... and knives... and anything else that could be used as a weapon... I suppose the idea of a farmer using dynamite to remove tree stumps out on his rural farm, with no one around anywhere in sight, is a completely foreign concept. By this time, I don't think most people in the U.K. have any real conception of individual freedom. I have encountered many of them in internet forums, and they seem to believe the government is perfectly within its rights to pass whatever invasive little laws it wants in an attempt to try to make society a better place. And that anyone who questions this is just ignorant or oppositional. I have much more to say about the general mentality of people in the U.K., nothing nice, but I will try to keep to the subject here.
When I was a kid I was absolutely fascinated by my grandfather blowing up tree stumps with dynamite. Of course, this was before the 96' gun control act. As an adult, and chemistry enthusiast, the fascist state irks me more than anything else. It won't be nitric acid that destroys our liberties.
I read somewhere recently that the UK government is considering outlawing sharp pointed knives. I kinda laughed it off, but after reading this, I'm not so sure. Anyone heard anything about round edged knives?
The U.K. has a substantial immigrant population typically concentrated in urban areas, particularly in the Greater London area. Between the poverty, overcrowded living arrangements, and parents being gone all day, there is a delinquent youth problem. Some of them go around stabbing eachother (and sometimes innocent pedestrians who look at them the wrong way) because they have nothing better to do. There was indeed a serious push by some groups some years ago to ban the sale of sharp-pointed knives. But it never really went anywhere. There are already plenty of other strict knife restrictions in the U.K. It just goes to show that, if given free reign, those with the gun-control mentality won't just stop at guns. It's all unbelievably ridiculous, but it seems many people in the U.K. just take these extreme laws for granted. The general culture in the U.K. sees any type of weapon the same way Americans view cocaine. It's interesting what certain societies preoccupy themselves with restricting and controlling. It's different in different societies.
