Now Labour is to set its sights on your shotguns 

The Government is launching a consultation later this year to determine whether to apply stricter licensing controls to shotguns. 

In response to the Conservatives’ firearms consultation from 2023, it has committed to gathering further data from the public to decide if it should apply the same licensing controls that are currently in place for higher-powered firearms to lower-powered shotguns. 

Licences for firearms are more tightly controlled than shotgun certificates due to the higher risk they are deemed to have for public safety. To obtain a firearms licence, a greater number of references are required than for a shotgun version, and applicants must provide a detailed justification for their need to own one. 

The Countryside Alliance (CA) believes this would amount to another attack on farmers and rural workers. 

CA chief executive Tim Bonner said: “This would drive down gun ownership as a whole, which could have massive implications for people trying to manage wildlife in the countryside [and] for the gun industry, which is a massive employer in rural areas.” 

Shotgun owners would have to store ammunition separately and could be required to keep their firearms in a different location outside their homes. “That would mean the ridiculous situation where farmers who are reacting to foxes eating their lambs would have to go and get their guns from somewhere else,” Mr Bonner pointed out. 

“There are people behind this who hate the concept of private gun ownership and are looking for any reason to make it more difficult, more expensive, more restrictive and bureaucratic. However much ministers deny it, many people will see this as part of a wider anti-rural agenda,” he added. 

The Government has also granted police automatic powers of entry into homes of firearms certificate holders, which BASC has called an “unnecessary erosion of civil liberties”. 

BASC’s director of firearms, Bill Harriman, said: “This is a deeply concerning move that fundamentally undermines the principles of fairness and due process. The Government is handing the police sweeping powers to enter the homes of certificate holders when the ability to do so to protect public safety is already enshrined in law. 

“This is potentially a serious infringement on the human rights of firearms users. In addition, by removing the safeguard of judicial oversight, a law-abiding section of society has been placed firmly into the category of second-class citizens,” he added.