I do believe The Scum newspaper was calling for air rifles to be banned not that long ago as they where "lethal", "dangerous" "a threat to life"...hmmmm..so now the L85 is not as lethal as my old Airarms Tx200?

Second point, could be wrong on this, but the marksman we had in our company where eqipped with L96 rifles. Last time i fired one it was 7.62, so on that front, we are no different to them (I bet Nick Griffen could not say that ;)) and probably somewhat better off due to training, superior ammunition and sights.

I started off my military career with SLR's..loved them. I used M16's in Brunei, where your vision was around 15 metres in the jungle, if you where lucky (often much less) and I was extremely excited when I got my hands in a L85.

The L85s history goes right back to the 1940's (bullpup design), its development in the 60's (calibre, round efficientcy), when a British soldier was expected to be fighting Soviet troops face to face on the streets of Berlin or sat in tha back of a 432 waiting for a nuck strike, and was trialled in 1975/6 and rolled out when the Cold War was still on and the majority of British Troops where seeing action on the streets of Northern Ireland where a 7.62 could cause considerable collateral damage.

For what it was designed for, I don't think the L85 can be bettered.

Because "our" enemy has changed means things need adapting. Tactics need to change, which they have, larger calibre weapons are needed, which are available and are being used, and journalism as used in The Scum needs rebuffing and corrected.

Imagine the mums and dads at home reading in the paper that there sons and daughters are "using the wrong bullets". The way it was worded implied that the guys on the ground where being issued the wrong rounds and that the Taliban where using "better bullets" and that we should be issuing "better bullets" to our guys...

Ohhhhhhh,,it really gets me....grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

You don't half talk some bollocks.

Tell it to the Taliban - Oh, we have killed the majority who have come face to face to us, thats why they are using IEDs, as it tends not to lose them the fight. Funny that.