Originally Posted by
MichaelOLearyGenius
I was on vacation in the US about 30 years ago. About three months before going on vacation I had been assaulted on the street in the UK with minor injury but it left me with some fears going out and I got taxis everywhere between bars if on a night out. Anyway on my US vacation I saw a pepper spray for sale quite openly in a pharmacy. I literally thought, oh great that's what I need. Ultimately I saw sense and did not purchase it.
Off topic a bit I know, but back in the 1980s I went on holiday to the USA and a friend back in the UK asked me to bring him back a replica Colt revolver (he was a Wild West/American Civil War reenactor nut back then). So I duly purchased said replica and before flying back to the UK 'phoned the airline to ask what the correct protocol was - I was told to pack it in my hold baggage and all would be fine. Of course they did not say anything about what I should do at UK Customs (not their jurisdiction or their problem)...I just took the chance and walked through the 'nothing to declare' channel. What would have happened if I'd been stopped? Don't know, don't care, it was a gazillion years ago! But it did set me thinking how easy would it have been to have taken a real gun home!