Firearms Inquiry - remaining united by Countryside Alliance
You may have read in this week's "Shooting Times" that the Home Affairs Select Committee on firearms control "experienced such a large volume of emails from members of the shooting community submitting evidence to the current inquiry that its computers crashed". The magazine reports that, as at the submission deadline of 27th August, the clerk of the committee had received over 300 submissions; a huge number.
The Countryside Alliance has responded to the Inquiry and you can download our full submission here. As ever, we are working closely with the British Shooting Sports Council and are prepared to give oral evidence as the Inquiry continues.
It is to the shooting community's credit that you are prepared to face head on the repercussions of the awful events in Cumbria that prompted this Inquiry. We all agree that gun ownership is a serious responsibility for those who choose to accept it, and a maturity and openness must accompany that responsibility. We must always be prepared to make our case. We have a duty to ensure that the Committee has the benefit of our experience and knowledge of the technical, social and economic aspects of legally held firearms.
We already have some of the most stringent gun laws in the world. It is vital that any changes to the law as a result of the tragic events in Cumbria actually improve public safety and do not simply penalise law abiding shooters.
There will be a full parliamentary debate later in the autumn, and it is essential that the debate is fair and reasoned. The Alliance and other shooting organisations have been contacting members with a view to lobbying the many new MPs whose views on this subject are unknown. It is important that you lobby your MP to ensure that he or she understands some of the issues that will be raised. Click here for some key points to note when contacting your MP, and please feel free to borrow from our own submission.
The key issues being looked at by the Inquiry include the fitness for purpose of the current licensing system, airguns, the relationship between licence holders and their doctors and the justification for ownership of a shotgun. The three separate police inquiries into the Cumbrian killings are due to report and we remain concerned that the current Inquiry is looking at these issues before the full facts are known.
It would be tragic if Cumbria became a pretext to attack lawful shooting rather than a genuine exercise in learning any lessons from the events themselves.
Shooting, and those who defend it, will be under intense scrutiny throughout this winter and we must remain united.
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