Labour to make shotgun ownership Section 1. Will air weapons be next?

 

I think the issue of legal gun ownership in Britain is really about social class. When I used to shoot 12 bore shotguns, every shotgun owner that I knew, always said that the police do not like "people like us having guns." They meant the working-class having access to guns. There's a mind-set in Britain that seems to think that shooting and hunting should be the preserve of only landowners and the green welly brigade.

If you look at the history of gun laws in Britain, you will see that during the reign of Queen Victoria, gun laws in Britain were virtually non-existent, and gun deaths were virtually unheard of. When I was growing up, many of us had airguns and I knew neighbours, who had shotguns. People went rabbiting with lurcher’s and ferrets.

Two events seem to have led to the tightening up of gun laws in Britain. One of these events, was the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the second, was the demobilisation of British troops at the end of WWI. In recent years, there's been a crackdown when there has been a shooting incident such as Hungerford. A gun owner told me recently that in the 1960s, you could buy a shotgun license for 10 shillings at a British post office.

If shotguns become Section 1, instead of Section 2, it will become far more difficult for people to own a shotgun. This could affect clay pigeon shooters and shooting clubs as well as farmers.  In law, there's an assumption that people are entitled to own a shotgun, but not a rifle. I believe you can also appeal against a refusal to be issued with a shotgun certificate.

Labour are very much anti-gun urbanites. I expect that they will target airgun owners next along with crossbow owners and the owners of catapults. In Scotland you already need an Air Weapon Certificate, to own or purchase an air weapon.