March 2010 Newsletter
The forthcoming Election
The election is approaching and by the time this newsletter is published, no doubt a date will have been announced. So now it is time for the silent majority i.e. You to get off your backside and do something for your sport! Now I don’t want to upset those stalwarts who have already been in touch with their prospective Parliamentary Candidates, you know who you are and we should all thankful for your efforts on our behalf. It is however, the silent majority that I would like to get doing something to help fight our corner.
I have heard it said in respect of Terrorism, that the only people that matter are the Terrorist extremists. Theirs is the only voice heard and the silent majority are Irrelevant.
Because the only voice the Government hears belongs to the extremists, this is the one that they make concessions to, generally to the detriment of the freedoms and way of life of the “Silent Majority”.
So it is with Shooters. Because you the “silent majority” do not make your voice heard, those in power disregard your wishes completely, because you don’t make them care enough to want to consider you at all. As far as they are concerned you are Irrelevant. They think that they can do whatever they like to you and you will stay silent and do nothing to withstand the injustice of it all. And so far, in the main they are right.
What I would like you all to do is to contact the PPCs for your Constituency and to ask them some simple questions, keep it brief and polite or you may be ignored.
- Are you pro or anti sports shooting?
- Would you vote in favour of the repeal of the Firearms (Amendment) ( No.2 ) Act 1997 ? Thus allowing .22 Target Pistols to be held on a Firearms Certificate and retained for use in Authorised Club Premises. This would enable people to train and achieve a high enough standard to be selected into the National Teams giving a broad base of potential members to select from.
- Would you oppose any move to Devolve Firearms Legislation to the Scottish
Parliament?
Point out to them that you are a Sports Shooter and that their answers will affect not only the way you vote but also that of your Family and many of your friends.
To contact your sitting MP, assuming that he is not retiring at this Election, could not be simpler.
Open up Google on your Computer, or on your children’s or Grandchildren’s if you do not have one of your own.
In the search box type in “LIST OF MPs” then hit the Enter key.
At the top of the results page you should get UK Parliament – Alphabetical list of MPs
Left click the mouse on that column and another page will appear from www.Parliament.uk titled
Alphabetical list of MPs
On that page you will find a search box entitled “Find your MP”, Left click the mouse on that box, then type in your Post Code and hit the Enter key.
This will bring up a page with the details of your sitting MP, whoever they are. If you left click the mouse on the link “Email Joe Bloggs”, or whatever their name is, this will bring up a Performa Email, which you can fill out and send to them. It worked for me, so I’m sure that it will work for you, I even got a reply too.
For the other Prospective Parliamentary Candidates it is not so easy You will have to search for the Party and the Area i.e. “Salisbury Labour Party”, in that case I could only find an Address and Telephone number, I don’t know if that is typical, but you may find that in a constituency where a party is not strong they may be hard to contact and that may be why they are not strong????? Which came first, the Chicken or the Egg?
I did manage to contact my local LIB. DEM. PPC and in his reply he asked for further details, in particular with respect of devolving Firearms Legislation to Scotland. I will have to put something together for him shortly, letting him know the why and wherefore of the whole sorry mess in Scotland.
But as you can see from the above, it is worth while contacting these people, because it gives you the opportunity to put our side of the argument across and to educate them if their knowledge is lacking.
When writing to PPCs and Sitting MPs, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, be polite to them. You may think that MPs are the Scum of the Earth, ( Especially after the Expenses Scandal ) they may even be the scum of the earth, but I don’t think that I want to go along that path. However, one thing is sure, you will do our cause no good at all if you are rude to them and alienate and antagonise them. You and I NEED their goodwill, however you may wish it were otherwise. I have been told that some of the letters that have been sent to MPs by shooters are not helping at all, in fact I have had it said to me “that if this is the type of person that wants their pistol back, then they will not get my backing”. So please be sensible how you go about it. It is human nature that people will not help those that are rude to them.
They want your vote and you want to shoot pistols again. So try to strike a bargain with them.
You will vote for them, if they will promise to vote to repeal the Amendment Act No 2.
I thought it might be as well to remind you of the conditions that will prevail, if we are able to persuade the Government to Repeal the Amendment No2 Act. So when you are discussing it with those concerned, you can assure them that we shall not be stalking the streets with our pistols, as many of the population were falsely told we used to before the ban.
If you wished to obtain a .22 pistol for Target Shooting, you would have to belong to a Club licensed to hold .22 pistols. See 19 and 20 below. You would not be able to remove the pistol from the Club premises unless you had a permit to do so from the Police see 13 below.
Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 and Firearms (Amendment) (No.2)Act 1997
19 Purpose of Part II
(1) This Part provides for the licensing of pistol clubs and their premises and for the regulation of licensed pistol clubs.
(2) In this Act—
• “License” means a license granted under section 21 below in respect of a pistol club and any premises of that club; and “licensed pistol club” shall be construed accordingly.
• “Licensed premises”, in relation to a licensed pistol club, means any premises which are specified in the club’s license as being premises which may be used for the purpose of storing or using small-caliber pistols.
20 No pistol club to operate without a license
(1) No club shall allow any small-caliber pistol to be stored or used on any of its club premises in connection with target shooting, unless the club is a licensed pistol club.
(2) No licensed pistol club shall allow a small-caliber pistol to be stored or used on any of its club premises by any holder of a firearm certificate or visitor’s firearm permit subject to a condition that it is only to be used for target shooting, unless—
(a) the certificate or permit holder is a member of that club;
(b) the premises are specified in the club’s licence as premises at which small-calibre pistols may be stored and used;
(c) the premises are specified in the certificate or permit as the place where the pistol is to be kept.
(3) Subsection (2) above does not apply to—
(a) the storage on licensed premises of a licensed pistol club of a small-calibre pistol purchased or acquired by the responsible officer of that club for use only by members of the club in connection with target shooting;
(b) the use on licensed premises of a licensed pistol club of a small-calibre pistol by a member of the club who is permitted to have it in his possession by virtue of section 27(3) below; or
(c) the use of a pistol on the licensed premises of a licensed pistol club if the person using the pistol is authorised by a permit under section 13 above to have the pistol with him on those premises.
(4) If a small-calibre pistol is stored or used in contravention of subsection (1) or (2) above, the persons or any of the persons responsible for the management of the club commit an offence punishable on summary conviction with imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or both.
(5) In proceedings against any person for an offence under subsection (4) above, it shall be a defence for him to prove that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence.
(6) In this section “club premises” means premises which are occupied by and habitually used for the purposes of the club.
13 Permits to have small-calibre pistols outside licensed pistol clubs
(1) A person whose firearm certificate for a small-calibre pistol is held subject to a condition that the pistol must be kept at licensed premises of a licensed pistol club may make an application in the prescribed form to the chief officer of police for the area in which he resides for a permit under this section authorising a person specified in the permit to have the pistol in his possession outside those premises for any proper purpose.
(2) A permit under this section shall not, unless the circumstances appear to the chief officer of police to be exceptional, authorise any holder of a firearm certificate which relates to the pistol to have the pistol with him in any place other than the licensed premises of a licensed pistol club or the premises at which a designated target shooting competition specified in the permit is being held.
(3) A proper purpose for having a small-calibre pistol outside the licensed premises at which it is required to be kept may be any of the following, namely—
(a) conveying the pistol to those premises following—
(i) the release of the pistol from police custody under Schedule 1 to this Act;
(ii) the purchase or acquisition of the pistol; or
(iii) a change in the licensed premises at which the pistol is required to be kept;
(b) having the pistol repaired or maintained by a registered firearms dealer;
(c) enabling the pistol to be used at a designated target shooting competition;
(d) selling or otherwise disposing of the pistol; or
(e) any other purpose which appears to the chief officer of police to be proper in all the circumstances.
(4) Where a person makes an application under subsection (1) above in relation to a pistol, the chief officer of police may, if he thinks fit, grant a permit in the prescribed form; and any such permit—
(a) shall specify the purpose for which it is granted and the name of any person who is authorised by the permit to have the pistol in his possession; and
(b) shall be granted subject to such conditions as the chief officer of police thinks necessary to secure that such possession will not endanger the public safety or the peace; and any conditions may include a time by which the pistol must be taken or returned to the licensed premises specified in the applicant’s firearm certificate.
If you can impart this information to your PPCs and if they are able to understand it, you should be able to convince them that Repealing the No2 Act can be done with no threat to “Public Safety” and then you and I would be able to have our sport back, albeit in a pale shadow of the way it used to be. But it would mean that our Children could learn to shoot a pistol competitively and achieve a standard of expertise that would enable them to compete at world class level with every possibility of being a World Champion. Unlike today, where even the few who may be granted a section 5 exemption, due to lack of authorized ranges, will not be able to train daily, as is required at that level of competition if you are to have a fair chance. And where does the next generation of Target Pistol Shooters come from?
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