Target Rifle muzzle energy.

You will no doubt all have heard by now of the proposal by the MOD to reduce the allowable muzzle energy of Civilian owned rifles being used on MOD Rangers, from 7000 joules to 3800 joules.

The new figure is uncomfortably close to the muzzle energy actually developed by many 7.62 target loads – e.g. A 155 grain bullets at 2,900 ft/sec will exceed the new limit, the same bullets at 2850 ft/sec will not. 6.5mm bullets of around 140 grains weight will just fit within the new limit if, a muzzle velocity of no more than 3000 ft/sec is achieved  – a not unreasonable goal for cartridges such as the 6.5/.308 (or .260 Remington to give it its commercial name) which are popular with ‘F’ Class target rifle shooters . A muzzle velocity of just 3050 ft/sec with this cartridge would exceed the permitted energy limit.

This news has caused great consternation, as effectively it meant that Target Rifle, Match Rifle, F Class and other forms of long range shooting may be effectively banned on all MoD ranges and Bisley.

I think it was Air Commodore Riall who declared that the NRA did not approve of self-loading rifles but preferred single shot bolt action ones at Bisley.

It was back in the mid to late 1950’s that the NRA went completely away from Service Rifle shooting (Never mind SR(a) and (b)) and began to promote the then new ‘sport’ of pure target rifle shooting (as opposed to target shooting with service rifles). At a stroke, target shooting retreated from ‘Defense of the Realm’ and became just a sport, with no obvious military connotations apart from the relatively minor one of helping with the design of sniping rifles. The effective dismissal of self-loading rifles by the NRA paved the way for the banning of the same in 1988 as the NRA had virtually destroyed the concept of ‘Good Reason’ to possess such things for target shooters. Do you remember the farce of the NRA’s insistence that even bolt action magazine rifles should be treated as single shot rifles and that only one cartridge be loaded at a time? That nonsense reared its head again quite recently at Altcar but we managed to quash it.

What genius our leaders in the NRA showed back then! Of course, we all more or less trusted the Government and the ‘Old Boy’ network was still alive and well. No-one was going to even think of curtailing shooting, were they? How Hegelian!!

If I was to say to you that there is a deliberate Government policy to disarm the civil population, so that they have no means of defending themselves if push comes to shove, would you say to me that I was being extreme?  That there is no evidence to back up such wild accusations ? That the Government would never Lie to us, or do anything that would be against the interests of the population as a whole. Search on the internet for the “Blackwell committee” 1920. This may prove interesting, and give you some background information on firearms legislation.

Commonwealth Games Federation

As if the last bit was not bad enough. It appears that the General Assembly of the CGF has voted to align the Commonwealth Games shooting events with those of the Olympic Games.       

It is my belief that in the next few years a concerted move will take place to delete .22 shooting from the Olympic Games and replace it with Air weapons only, both for rifle and pistol. This again will be touted about as a cost cutting exercise. Yeah right ! Once this happens, and it will, unless we are very careful, and if our Associations do not fight tooth and nail. (Unfortunately their record is appalling so far). We shall have to wait and see if it comes about. Keep your ears to the ground for “secret negotiations behind closed doors”. We do tend to hear about these things after the decision has been taken, and then it is almost impossible to turn it round.

Am I becoming Paranoid ? I hope the wife will let me know if I start checking under the bed at night.

Bill of Rights 1688/89Three Sportsmans Association members,  Savvas Toufexis, John Bingley and Richard Malbon, visited the House of Lords and were allowed to handle and photograph the Declaration of Rights (on left) and the Bill of Rights (on right).

The bill of Rights had not been unrolled in over a hundred years, and Richard was allowed to cut the bindings with his pocket knife

People keep complaining that the Sportsmans Association have not “got behind” or supported the Argument that the Bill of Rights gives us the right to have pistols for our self defence. This is a result of a deliberate policy decision made in the early months of the Associations life. We did look at it, and we discussed the possibilities with people who had spent thousands of pounds seeking Legal Opinion on this subject. It was decided that as far as we were concerned, at that time, it was a non starter.

If you spend thousands on legal advice and then ignore it, then you deserve all you get. However we are ten years further on and much research and court cases since that throw new light on the subject.
It is my belief that we never had the right in law to possess pistols for Target shooting only. As has been borne out by the recent attack on Target Rifle Shooting mentioned previously.  However, we do have the constitutional right to possess arms for self defence

Right! WOT IS THE BILL OF RIGHTS YOU LOT KEEP BANGING ON ABOUT ?

Now comes the Historical bit

Back in the sixteen hundreds King James the II  had been ignoring the population’s Common Law Rights and installing his Roman Catholic friends into position of power within the Realm. You must bear in mind that England was a Protestant State then and Catholics were not permitted by law, to hold High Office. He was having people Arrested and imprisoned without Trial, Confiscating land and goods without Trial, or where no offence had been committed ??????. (Golly does this sound familiar?)

Eventually some of the Lords asked Prince William of Orange (His wife being heir to the throne) to come to England and right the wrongs caused by King James the II. Which he did, and King James, seeing his support wither away, “was allowed to flee to France”.

Prince William and his wife Mary, who had joined him by then, were offered the Crown of England by the Lords, on the proviso that they agreed to the Declaration of rights, which they did on 15 February 1688. (Bear in mind that they used the Julian Calendar and 1688 didn’t turn into 1689 until March)

The Coronation of William and Mary took place on 11th April 1689 and on 16th December the Bill of Rights received Royal Assent.

The Bill of Rights was a Statute drawn up to confirm with the force of statute law the Declaration of rights, which re-asserted the ancient liberties of the population and Common Law and limited the power of the King, and thus of  Parliament, because the king was bound by his Coronation Oath. And the members of both Houses of Parliament by their Oaths of office and of allegiance to the King.

The coronation Oath was also altered for the Coronation of William and Mary. The archbishop asked them:

Will you solelmnely promise and sweare to governe the people of this Kingdome of England and the dominions thereto belonging according to the statutes in Parlyament Agreed on and the Laws and Customs of the same ?

To which the King and Queen replied “I solemnly Promise soe to doe”

The difference was that it included “According to the statutes in Parlyament agreed on” Thereby ensuring that the Crown could no longer claim to be above the Statute law

This new Oath also ensured that all Crown Servants were committed to the same, by their oath of allegiance to the King or Queen. This is still true today, though most Crown Servants and our MPs seem ignorant of it or even worse, ignore it, but it is enforceable in law.

After the Coronation which took place on 11th April 1689 The Bill of Rights was presented to Parliament and received Royal Assent on 16th December 1689.

A full text of the of Declaration of Rights and of the Bill of rights, is to be found on the Sportsmans Association Website

The part of the Bill that will interest you as Shooters, is at the bottom of the third sheet of vellum where it says:-

THAT THE SUBJECTS WHICH ARE PROTESTANTS MAY HAVE ARMS FOR THEIR DEFENCE SUITABLE TO THEIR CONDITIONS AND AS ALLOWED BY LAW.

This asserted the ancient liberty of armed self defence for the protestants this had been violated by King James II.

This is part of our current Constitutional Law. Since the 1920s successive Governments have lied to the population and made successive legislation with regards to firearms. In the 1950s it was decided by the Home secretary of the time, that self defence was no longer a “good reason” to have a pistol. and thus without parliamentary debate on the subject, our ancient and constitutional right to possess a pistol for our self defence was pushed into abeyance. This was later “consolidated” by the 1968 Firearms act. This, apparent usurping of unconstitutional power must amount to an unconstitutional action by the government of the day. The constitutionality of these measures has never been fully tested in the courts. Indeed the true strength of our whole constitution remains untested, but because of the wide abuse of power, the certainty of a fundamental test draws ever nearer.

I would be happy to discuss this in greater detail with anyone who is better versed in law than I, and thinks I am wrong. I will be discussing this subject again in next months Newsletter.

Health Warning.  If you apply for a variation to your FAC for a Pistol for self defence or for the defence of the Realm, you will find the police will take all your firearms and revoke your FAC. If you cannot afford to take your case for their return through the courts, to the House of Lords, then don’t do it.

The Good Guys and the Bad Guys

I’m afraid that Suffolk police let themselves down this month, they took eight weeks for a renewal, which I suppose by the standard of some forces is not too bad, but then the lever action has been put down as a bolt action, the 7.62mmx51/.308 is a revolver MUZZLE LOADING (their caps) I would love to see what one of those looks like, a muzzle loading revolver! In .308! Awesome. I wonder what the holster is like?
Birmingham FLO gets a pat on the back from one of our members for doing a variation in one week. And Avon and Somerset got complimented too. Well done Chaps !    (Chapesses ? one must not be sexist).

Regards, Alan Westlake.