Shooting groups call to action as deadline looms

Lobbying is vital to prevent ACPO and the Home Office making shotguns require a Section 1 Firearms Certificate.

By Barnaby Dracup

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

Two days before the deadline for submissions to the Firearms Home Affairs Select Committee, shooting groups are urging shooters to make responses if they haven't already done so.

Shooting groups call to action as deadline looms.
BASC asked those who submitted evidence to alert the organisation and it has received a positive response.

Communications director Christopher Graffius said: “It is the best response I can remember. We have had between five and 10 emails per day with evidence attached since the enquiry was launched.”

However, he urged anyone who hadn’t yet responded to do so and emphasised the importance of continuing to lobby local MPs after the 27 August deadline: “It is essential to make yourself known to your local MP as a shooter and if possible invite them to a shoot so they experience the activity first-hand rather than hearing about it through the media.”

Former police superintendent, Colin Greenwood, believes lobbying is vital to prevent ACPO and the Home Office carrying out their intention of making shotguns require a Section 1 firearms certificate, a measure first proposed 10 years ago.

He said: “The process can only be stopped if the entire community starts the fight back immediately. Making shotgun owners require firearms certificates will do enormous damage to shooting, so it’s vital that we all submit evidence to the committee and lobby our local MPs.”

Give your submission here!

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Comments

Gill Rollings

Sun, 29th Aug 2010 16:54:22

I was unable to submit my evidence before the deadline as each time I tried using the required home offfice email address I received the following message from my server "I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out." And yes I did check that the address was correct and even used the submission link on the BASC website. Is this typical of the Governments attempts to prevent us from having our say or just the usual Parliamentry cock up. I had hoped that with a largely Conservative Government we would have had a fair hearing but it seems some things never change.

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