Dear Mr. Tacfoley,
I'm glad to see that there is no bad blood between us. Let's keep it this way.
Michael Zeleny,
If you want to find out who - actually - makes UK laws and who can influence its content, please read this previous discussion about UK political mechanisms:
http://forums.lugerforum.com/lugerfo...=000149#000022
Thus, if you allow me, I would like to complete your previous statement as follows:
"The British system of parliamentary sovereignty is the very definition of representative democracy"
...which comes closest to despotism (with intermittent elections).
As far as I know (now don't get me wrong Mr. Tac, I know that you do live in the UK and I do not (anymore)), the UK PM could (almost) decide - just by himself - to enact death penalty for unlawful gun possession and no one would/could seriously oppose it.
Cheers, Panda