NGO Welcomes Firearms Announcement
29 September 2011
The National Gamekeepers' Organisation (NGO) generally welcomes today's measured response by Government to the recommendations of the Home Affairs Select Committee, following the tragic Cumbrian shootings last year.
The NGO notes the Government's conclusion, advised by an independent report, that the Cumbrian tragedies could not have been averted by licensing. Lindsay Waddell, the NGO Chairman said,
"It is people that kill people, not guns, and penalising legitimate gun users for the acts of one mentally unstable individual would have been the wrong response. The Government has not done that. Instead it has taken the opportunity to propose some timely and largely sensible improvements to the current licensing arrangements."
The NGO approves of most of the suggestions the Government has made and particularly welcomes their rejection of calls for shotguns to be licenced in the same way as Section 1 Firearms and their announcements that they have no intention of restricting the legitimate use of guns by young people, nor plans to licence air guns.
The NGO believes that the most significant announcement today is that the Home Office guidance to the police on how the Firearms Act should be administered is to be updated. This is a long overdue requirement.
" The NGO looks forward to engaging with the necessary public consultation in order to ensure that the revised guidance is sensible, practical and does not adversely affect our members' interests," said Lindsay Waddell.
The NGO regrets, however, the Government's decision not to make the Home Office guidance statutory. We have serious concerns about the variability with which different police forces administer the Act, sometimes deliberately ignoring Home Office and ACPO guidance with the result that whether or not someone can obtain a gun licence, and under what terms, has become something of a postcode lottery. Such problems are not ubiquitous but they are not uncommon either. The licensing system must be fair and we feel an opportunity has been missed to ensure that the police are required to follow the Home Office Guidance.
We have some concerns about the proposal to involve GP's more in the licensing process and we certainly oppose the potential involvement of partners and ex-partners. Yes it is important that an applicant's medical and mental fitness are taken into account but this must not compromise patient confidentiality nor allow malicious interference by third parties.
The Government statement contains the clearest indication yet that fees for certificates are soon to rise. An inflation-related rise would of course seem reasonable but we would oppose any real-terms rise that was not linked to an improved, consistent licensing service. In some police areas the current system falls well short of that.