The UK Government Seeks to Ban the Legitimate Discipline of British Target Shooting
No one on either side of the political divide would argue that the government has little on its plate. The process of exiting (or not exiting, it may seem) the European Union is taking up every moment of everyone's time. My sources tell me that whole floors of departments have been taken over by the previously unknown department for exiting the European Union. In addition, our foreign policy has brought upon our heads the spectre of global terrorism. So while our ministers are desperately trying to get out of Europe without destroying the nation, our Police and security bodies are trying to keep the baddies out or stop goodies from becoming baddies.
Ultra Long Range shooting. If you don't have HME, you have no hope of competing.
GOVERNMENT SEEKS TO BAN .50 TARGET RIFLES AND MORE
The UK Government wants to ban legitimate target shooting with large rifles. To be technical, .50 calibre rifles are in the government's sights. Now they have increased the scope of the consultation to any rifle that produces more than 10,000 joules of energy. You can see the full home office consultation document here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/offensive-and-dangerous-weapons-new-legislation
It is a well-known fact in the UK that you cannot commit any offence and still retain a firearms certificate, no matter how small. In one case, the chairman of a shooting club lost his certificate for making what he believed were amusing posts on Facebook. The police took a different view and withdrew his certificate. It really is that controlled and easy to remove someone's permission to possess a sporting firearm in the UK. It took him a year and a court case to prove that his Facebook comments were genuinely in jest. There are no ifs, buts, or maybes about the firearms licensing system. Any stain on a sports shooter's character, no matter how small, can lead to the withdrawal of the certificate. The onus is upon the (former) certificate holder to prove his fitness to hold a certificate in a court of law.
The current conservative government have chosen .50 calibre target rifles and "Manually Activated Release System" (MARS) rifles to be moved from section 1 (available to civilians after exhaustive checks) to section 5 (prohibited except with permission)
When the fifty calibre shooters association (the UK's main body for shooting HME rifles) met with the home office, the civil servants changed the scope of their consultation to include all rifles above 10,000 joules of energy. One must ask if someone suddenly realised that banning .50 calibre rifles was utterly pointless if the nation's sharpshooters bought .375 cheetah or 20mm rifles. There is growing speculation that in doing so, the home office has broken its own rules on how to implement a consultation.
WHY DO THEY WANT TO DO THIS?
Here is the basic summary of the reasons the home office gives:
"… the ownership by civilians creates a risk of these weapons getting into the hands of either criminals or terrorists".
"The rifles are material destruction weapons."
Is this the next stop? Will historic .30 calibre rifles be next for a ban?
IS THE GOVERNMENT RIGHT?
The simple answer is no. Firstly let us lump all rifles over 10,000 joules into a category called High Muzzle Energy. (HME). If someone wants to be an effective baddie with an HME rifle, they need three things. They need a range, a massive supply of ammunition, and, most importantly, lots of practice. Shooting an HME rifle, let alone shoot one accurately, requires a skill level few possess. That person would need to be on a range, being coached day in and day out, for a long time to have a hope of accurate shooting.
HME rifles are not toys; they are large, cumbersome and unpleasant for everyone except the firer. The back pressure alone is awful to bystanders. To get the best out of any target shooting, one needs a spotter who is extremely experienced in observation. That spotter is, in effect, a mobile shooting coach who is as much part of the long-range shooter's skill as the marksman.
So let's just say a criminal manages to get his grubby hands on an HME rifle; he also needs to steal more ammunition than most target shooters possess. He needs to find a quiet uninhabited part of the UK with range-like conditions. A good telescope, a target (yes, something to actually shoot at), and a competent spotter. They would also have needed to have absolutely mastered the basic principles of marksmanship. When he finds all those conditions and items. The criminal has to transport a rifle the size of a household drainpipe to a location where he can conduct his illegal activities, get away with what he wants to do and then get away with the same drainpipe. All this with the great British Public looking at him, hearing him, videoing him. (you don't wave a .50 cal around).
The IRA in Northern Ireland is the greatest example of the utter uselessness of an untrained gunman with a .50 cal. They got their hands on two Barrett .50 calibre rifles. Even with the tacit support of some of the local population, the gunmen could rarely shoot accurately. Their attempts to strike terror into the armed forces were a damp squib, and they ended up being defeated by aggressive patrolling techniques and some straightforward anti-sniping measures. After being given tremendous fright, both gunmen disappeared over the border into the Republic and did not return.
Concerning the rifles being material destruction weapons, this is absolute tosh. Suppose you wish to effectively impede the operation of an armoured vehicle, even a macron-covered Land Rover. In that case, you will achieve nothing with an HME rifle. You could burst a tyre if you were lucky (and a superb shot). But a single HME round will likely ricochet off an armoured vehicle. You would have exactly the same result with a .30 rifle. The only possible reason for some uninformed person thinking that HME is material destruction is if they were thinking of the .50 calibre browning machine gun. One of these, operated by an extremely well-trained military team, could damage an armoured vehicle if – and this is a big if- they had enough ammunition and the vehicle stayed still.
Someone mentioned that an official was concerned that HME rifles could pierce body armour. That person is clearly not familiar with .30 calibre ammunition which will go through most body armour, except the most expensive, porcelain plate type body armour. So if the world standard target calibre is dangerous, how much more dangerous can the .50 calibre be? Again, we must look at the level of practice needed to effectively use any rifle, let alone the behemoths of .50 calibre.
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
We must acknowledge the benefits of the British firearms licencing system. By and large, so much good work is done by the vast majority of our police forces in administrating this system. It may be popular for some people to make disparaging remarks about our police, but these people are as misguided as the idiot behind the current proposals. From the collective experience of our shooting community, all of us have been treated with the utmost respect and common sense by the vast majority of our firearms licensing teams.
Someone in a position of power is apprehensive about .50 calibre rifles and the possibility of misusing MARS rifles. That person, whoever they may be, must be grossly inexperienced. The author is not about to write a criminal's handbook on how to best use a rifle for nefarious purposes. Suffice it to say that a properly trained sharpshooter, employed sensibly, could wreak much greater havoc with the tiniest of calibres.
In addition, HM Customs (now known as the border agency) have successfully intercepted 110 real illegal firearms imported into the UK in the past 12 months. This includes a batch of fully automatic skorpion pistols. See that story here:
The criminal fraternity is clearly not interested in a huge heavy drainpipe that requires a year of training to come close to being accurate. They want short automatic machine pistols which can be concealed.
So this so-called consultation is an ill-thought-out attempt to gain a few more votes from a failing government. In fact, this entire process is nothing more than yet another attack on our culture, hobbies and freedoms. Once again, the legal target shooting community is made to suffer to allow someone to gain a vote or two.
Target shooters at Bisley go out in all weather to indulge in their globally recognised sport.
DOES THIS AFFECT US?
Target shooting is part of the history and fabric of British Society. Most target shooting clubs date back to the Boer War when our Afrikaner friends outshot the British Army of the day. Target shooting clubs cropped up all over the British Empire to remedy this. Most clubs in this country date back to the turn of the 20th century. The NRA (of the United Kingdom) has twice played a pivotal role in improving the marksmanship of our soldiers in both world wars.
Thankfully since the dark days of WW2, the British target shooting community has been able to concentrate on the challenging task of hitting a black circle of paper at 300, 600 and 1000 yards. Bisley Camp, the home of the original (British) NRA, is the global centre of shooting excellence. As a British policeman once described the NRA: "Bisley is the mecca of global target shooting".
Every target shooter in the free world would love to come to Bisley and lie down on the mound and shoot targets. Our government is planning to attack one section of our target shooting community. This consultation is seen by many as being the thin end of the wedge.
This assault on lawful British target shooters attacks the world-recognised Olympic shooting sports. It attacks Britain's rich history, values and, most of all, Britain's inclusive tolerance. The British shooting community is the most reliable, the most law-abiding and the most responsible shooting community on this earth. Target shooters are the most law-abiding members of our society. As soon as they stop being law-abiding, their ability to target shoot is withdrawn.
Bisley is the global centre of target shooting. Shooting is part of the very fabric of British society.
WHAT TO DO NEXT?
Great Britain invented target shooting, and now our government is attempting to destroy one of the sports that are part of our nation's history and very fabric. So what can we, as lawful and well-behaved citizens, do to save our sport? There are two simple answers.
BE SAFE
First and foremost, the British Shooting community must consider the one sensible aspect of the consultation. The worry is that any firearms (not just HME) may fall into the hands of criminals.
We must take every measure that we possibly can to secure our firearms. If this means new windows and a front door, so be it. We must consider always removing bolts, barrels, and chassis systems and keeping our firearms and their components in separate safes. We should alarm our houses.
When travelling with firearms, we should be discreet when loading our cars and try to travel with two in the car so that one person can always stay with the vehicle for rest stops. If we travel alone, pre-removed parts can be carried in a day pack while visiting the loo. For extremely long journeys, food can nearly always be eaten while we have eyes on our vehicles.
We owe it to our fellow citizens to take every measure to prevent our firearms from falling into the wrong hands.
VOTE WITH OUR CONSCIENCES
The second thing we must do is vote and tell our elected representatives why we will vote that way. The British Shooting community have stayed silent and passive for too long. The time has come to write to MPs and ask them to support us. If one's MP is ambivalent or worse – he personally backs a ban. The voting target shooter must clarify that they will be voting for "the other party" at the next election.
British shooters can only continue to save their sport if parliament members realise that all 350,000 odd firearms certificate holders will vote on this one issue above all others. Suppose the British shooter does not do so. In that case, they cannot complain when target shooting is banned, and Britain loses every shooting event at the Olympics.