UK: Shotgun owners may face tougher rules

Anhaga · Post by **Anhaga** » 2004-05-12 03:27am

The Times wrote: Shotgun owners may face tougher rules
By Tom Baldwin

OWNERS of Britain’s 600,000 licensed shotguns face new restrictions under measures being outlined today in a government consultation paper on firearms.

The document will also canvas further restrictions on lookalike weapons after mounting police alarm that they are the firearm most favoured by criminals.

It will also look at whether airguns should be registered.

A more far-reaching suggestion will be whether there should be an age limit of 18 on the possession and use of any gun and whether anyone using a firearm must possess a firearms certificate.

At present a person may use a shotgun or rifle without possessing a firearms certificate, but only under the close supervision of a certificate holder.

Caroline Flint, a junior Home Office minister, will publish a Home Office consultation paper as the launch of a full debate over firearms laws and whether it can or should be tightened.

Although she will emphasise that the Government has not decided on firm proposals for action, the paper published today will pose a series of potential changes to the law.

A key issue to be addressed is the growing concern over replica weapons, which may be bought without a certificate but are being converted by criminals to fire live ammunition. The consultation paper will seek views on whether a total ban should be imposed on the sale, importation and manufacture of lookalike or imitation weapons.

The Government has already made it an offence to have an replica weapon in a public place without a reasonable excuse but has stopped short of an outright ban. Ministers have been warned that there could be serious difficulties over defining in law what constituted a replica gun.

Today’s consultation paper will be published alongside a thematic review by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary entitled Guns, Community and the Police. The report by Tim Hollis, assistant inspector of constabulary, will look at the response of the police and community to gun crime and make nine, largely technical, recommendations for change.

The Home Office has been conducting a review of all gun laws since the public outcry over the fatal shooting of two teenage girls in Birmingham last year.

The last significant reform of firearms legislation was in 1997 when the Government introduced a ban on all handguns after the massacre of 16 schoolchildren by Thomas Hamilton, whose weapons were licensed.

Initially this resulted in a fall in the number of crimes involving handguns from 3,347 in 1996 to 2,636. But by 2002 the figure had risen to 5,871 and the shooting community has complained that it has been made the scapegoat for the gun culture of inner-city gangs.

The laws governing posession of shotguns has remained relatively liberal, not least because of their extensive use by farmers in pest control.

But ministers will be wary of picking another fight with rural communities at a time when the Government is preparing to make a fresh attempt to ban foxhunting before the next election. Mike Eveleigh, senior firearms officer for the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, said: “Current laws have been put together piecemeal and are not effectively dealing with the criminal use of guns, nor is the legitimate shooter best served by the existing complex system.

“We can see some merits in streamlining the shotguns and firearms licensing procedures. The shotgun licensing system is by far the most effective of the two, but we will need to discuss this to ensure we have a fair and workable system.”

Police say that the greatest increase in such crime is linked to a rise in the use of imitation weapons and converted airguns. In London at least 70 per cent of weapons seized by officers are converted replicas.

Last November, the All- Party Parliamentary Group on Gun Crime published a report calling for a complete ban on the import, sale and manufacture of replica firearms.

Last month new anti-social behaviour laws came into effect which included a new imprisonable offence of carrying a replica gun in public

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2004-05-12 09:40am

A couple of questions.

Just what crime problem does the UK have that would justify new restrictions on shotguns in rural areas?

What is the reasoning behind registering airguns???

and why this one?

A more far-reaching suggestion will be whether there should be an age limit of 18 on the possession and use of any gun and whether anyone using a firearm must possess a firearms certificate.

At present a person may use a shotgun or rifle without possessing a firearms certificate, but only under the close supervision of a certificate holder.

This one would seem to be an attack on teaching your children how to safely use your firearms. Some of my fondest memories as a child were the times my Father took me out plinking with a .22 rifle. Under this proposal, that would be illegal.

Has there been a rash of closely supervised (by a certificate holder) people committing crimes?

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2004-05-12 10:49am

I would like to know how the fuck a half plastic airgun can be configured to fire real bullets.

RadiO · Post by **RadiO** » 2004-05-12 01:46pm

Prime Air Weapon bone of contention

I never really understood the point of the Brocock system, beyond it looking really cool and that it's undeniably clever.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-05-12 01:54pm

Alyeska wrote:I would like to know how the fuck a half plastic airgun can be configured to fire real bullets.

It's dangerous, but many idiots, sorry, street gangster do it with that Brocock and others. If it doesn't blow your hand off it'll likely shoot fairly well.

Air rifles can be a problem as there was a spate of kids going out with them and shooting other kids in the head and the cops couldn't do anything about that. My air rifles are always kept within my grounds since leaving the premises carrying a bloody rifle, even with a gunshop across the road, is going to get attention.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2004-05-12 02:22pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote: Air rifles can be a problem as there was a spate of kids going out with them and shooting other kids in the head and the cops couldn't do anything about that. My air rifles are always kept within my grounds since leaving the premises carrying a bloody rifle, even with a gunshop across the road, is going to get attention.

The cops couldn't charge them with assault?

It seems to me a better solution would be to simply ban the possession of an air rifle by those under 18 unless accompanied by an adult, than to implement the registration of air rifles.

Though if you're talkng about children shooting at each other, that's more of a dumbass parent issue than a legal one.

When I was seven, the neighborhood bully picked on me one too many times. I didn't go get my BB gun (it was locked up, but I found out where the key was), instead I threw a rock that broke his arm.

I had it drilled in my head even then that you *don't* point a gun at someone unless you intend to kill them.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-05-12 02:32pm

Glocksman wrote: The cops couldn't charge them with assault?

Or rather, couldn't find them as the guns were not licenced and the assaults were by stealth.

It seems to me a better solution would be to simply ban the possession of an air rifle by those under 18 unless accompanied by an adult, than to implement the registration of air rifles.

Though if you're talkng about children shooting at each other, that's more of a dumbass parent issue than a legal one.

When I was seven, the neighborhood bully picked on me one too many times. I didn't go get my BB gun (it was locked up, but I found out where the key was), instead I threw a rock that broke his arm.

I had it drilled in my head even then that you *don't* point a gun at someone unless you intend to kill them.

I'd be all for licencing air guns, I, too, was drilled never to point any weapon barrel at a person by my dad who was always a good marksman with the SLR (and annoyingly beats me every now and then with the air rifles).

Still, kids will always get up to wrong and limiting what they can use is the only sure fire thing to do other than lock them up.