BASC launches police guide to shooting

BASC's newly updated guide is designed to help avoid police armed response units being sent to arrest legal shooters

By Selena Masson

Thursday, 28 January 2010

BASC has issued all UK police forces with a new guide to help them understand how lawful shooting works

Following a number of incidents involving lawful shooters being wrongfully arrested, police forces are to be sent a newly updated BASC guide to help them identify people taking part in lawful shooting.

The six-page booklet, titled The Police Officer’s Guide to Shooters, is designed to help prevent misunderstandings and reduce interventions by the police.

The publication will provide police officers with a guide to the various different aspects of shooting and lists the equipment that people involved in shooting may have with them in different circumstances. Printed copies will be distributed to every police force in England, Wales and Scotland.

Mike Eveleigh, senior firearms officer at BASC, said the guide was in line with Shooting Times’s Campaign for Common Sense: “We want to avoid any potential confrontation between armed police officers and lawful shooters, and our guide is designed to reduce this risk.”

Mr Eveleigh added that the guide should also prove helpful to frontline communications staff in police forces as it provides information they can use if a member of the public contacts them to report having seen a person with a gun: “The guide contains a quick reference to the type of shooting carried out in the UK, a sort of spotter’s guide for police officers, giving them a brief description of the clothing, equipment and behaviour of shooters, as well as where and when they might be found.”

The rest of this article appears in 27th January issue of Shooting Times.