Shooting campaign update

This is a busy time for the shooting campaigns team. This week we are attending a meeting of the Medical Evidence Working Group at the Home Office, a roundtable at Europe House with Vicky Ford MEP to discuss the Firearms Directive and a discussion at DEFRA debating the implementation of the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards. As always our position on all these issues is that law-abiding shooters and gamekeepers should be allowed to go about their activities without unnecessary government restrictions. In the case of the Firearms Directive and the Medical Evidence Working Group we are forcefully arguing that the UK already has some of the most stringent gun control legislation in Europe, more than meeting the challenge of keeping firearms out of the hands of wrong-doers. At the Home Office we will be pressing for fairness, efficiency and transparency in any medical involvement in the firearms licensing process. At Europe House we will be resisting any well-meaning but ultimately ineffective changes to UK gun laws, which will serve no purpose except to inconvenience and disadvantage legal shooters. Proposals such as banning semi-automatic rimfires that look like automatic weapons are deeply flawed and we will be saying so.

The Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS) is a different conversation, but one we will be entering into with equal vigour. It is now almost certain that we will be losing the use of some of our most widely used traps for at least some target species, the battle now is to make this transition as painless as possible for UK gamekeepers and conservationists who rely on these traps for their livelihoods and to protect some of our rarest species. We will be campaigning throughout the implementation of AIHTS to secure the best possible outcome for our members.

We hope you have an enjoyable and successful end to the season, safe in the knowledge that we in shooting campaign are working hard behind the scenes to secure the future of our sport!

Liam Stokes
Head of Shooting Campaigns
Follow Liam on Twitter @LNJStokes