Written evidence submitted by Historical
Breechloading Smallarms Association
HOME AFFAIRS COMMITTEE INQUIRY INTO FIREARMS CONTROL
I enclose the submission of the Historical Breechloading
Smallarms Association (HBSA) to the Home Affairs Committee inquiry
into firearms control.
The HBSA was founded in 1973 by a group of academics,
students of arms and collectors, concerned with the legislative
threat to the preservation of privately-owned firearms. The fundamental
aims of the HBSA are to encourage the preservation of breechloading
firearms and ammunition, and to foster the study of all aspects
of the subject. The Association considers that the private collection
and use of historical arms and ammunition is essential to facilitate
historical study and research.
As a group composed of responsible members of society,
the HBSA is concerned that public safety should be maintained;
but equally, we assert that a democratic nation should permit
law-abiding citizens to possess and use firearms, especially those
which are historical, with no more restriction than is genuinely
necessary - and the Association is mindful that, in principle,
what is contemporary today is historical tomorrow.
The HBSA has been involved in discussions with the
Home Office regarding legislation on historical arms and ammunition
for over 35 years. We feel that our experience and knowledge in
this field is such that our views should carry weight. Although
the HBSA is primarily concerned with a particular area of the
firearms field, we broadly support the views of the British Shooting
Sports Council, which we consider to be the over-arching organisation
representing all those involved in the legitimate private ownership
and use of firearms.
I shall be obliged if you will inform the HBSA of
the results of the Committee's inquiry, so that we can continue
to contribute to the critical issues under consideration.
INTRODUCTION
1. The Home Affairs Committee announced on 15
July 2010 that it was to carry out a new inquiry into firearms
control. The announcement included an invitation to interested
organisations and individuals to make written submissions to the
inquiry. This paper is the submission of the Historical Breechloading
Smallarms Association (HBSA).
2. Throughout the paper, "firearm"
is used as generic term that includes shotguns.
SUMMARY
3. The following is the summary of the conclusions
drawn in this paper:
(a) Official statistics indicate that there is
no linkage between the legal ownership of guns and the and their
use by the criminal fraternity.
(b) The existing gun control measures reduce
criminal access to guns to the greatest extent that it is practicable
to achieve by legislation alone.
(c) It is unlikely that the proposals for doctors
to share information with police regarding licensing matters will
yield any benefit to public safety - and the concept has security
implications that could be counter productive.
(d) Official statistics indicate that the danger
presented by airguns is at a very low level - and it is reducing
dramatically at a time when other violent crime is increasing;
the existing legislation is effectives. However, delegation of
the associated legislative powers to the Scottish Parliament would
be likely to result in differences between the English and Scottish
laws on airguns; such differences would be confusing, divisive
and unnecessary.
(e) Although the existing legislation on firearms
is effective, the fact that it is scattered across several Acts,
and contains some unworkable provisions, makes reference and interpretation
difficult. A Regulatory Reform Order and a Consolidating Act have
been discussed within the Home Office and implementation of those
measures would lead to a worthwhile increase in the administrative
efficiency of the firearms licensing system. Also, a significant
improvement in the operation of the licensing system would result
if more emphasis was placed on the character of certificate applicants
and less on the details of the firearms that they wish to acquire.
EXTENT OF
THE USE
OF LEGALLY-OWNED
FIREARMS IN
CRIMINAL ACTIVITY
4. The Home Office has already determined that
the level of misuse of legally-held firearms is very low, and
this situation was one of the reasons for the decision not to
provide a data link between the Firearms Licensing Management
System (FLMS) and the National Ballistics Intelligence Service
(NaBIS) database. In his response to a written question regarding
the decision in 2008, the Minister of State (Security, Counter-terrorism,
Crime and Policing) included the following observations:
".... the very low instances of legally held
firearms being used in gun crime......any risk of legally-held
firearms being used for criminal purposes was so low....".
5. The fact that there is no connection between
legitimate firearms ownership and the use of firearms by the criminal
fraternity is underlined by official statistics. The latest (May
2006) Home Office figures for gun crime in England and Wales show
that such crime fell by 8% during 2004-05, but during the same
period legitimate private ownership rose by the same percentage.
6. Handguns were classified as prohibited weapons
by the Firearms (Amendment) Acts 1997 and they can no longer be
possessed by civilian target shooting competitors. However, handguns
continue to be used by criminals: in 2008-09, these prohibited
weapons were used in 52% of all firearms (ie non-airgun) crime.
FITNESS FOR
PURPOSE OF
EXISTING FIREARMS
LEGISLATION
7. Logically, the purpose of firearms legislation
is to prevent criminals and irresponsible individuals from legally
gaining access to firearms, without unnecessarily hindering such
access by individuals who are law abiding and responsible. The
feasibility of effective enforcement, the proportionality of the
proposed restrictions to the threat to public safety, and the
balance between public safety and the freedoms of individuals
who are law-abiding and responsible, are the factors which should
dictate the design of the legislation. It is important that that
firearms legislation should be considered in the light of the
widespread legitimate ownership and use of firearms: the scale
and diversity of that ownership and use is summarised in the annex
to this paper.
8. The voluminous UK firearms iaws are widely
regarded as being among the most restrictive to be found anywhere.
As the figures quoted above in paragraphs 5 and 6 underline, firearms
legislation has reached, in fact, has gone beyond, the point of
diminishing returns - legislation is now severely penalising law-abiding
and responsible individuals while failing to prevent the increasing
criminal use of firearms.
9. It is clear that a reduction in criminal use
can only be achieved by improvements in law enforcement. Law-enforcement
agencies are faced with major difficulties in making such an improvement
and it will never be possible to eliminate the use of firearms
by criminals. However, it is important that operations designed
to prevent armed crime are adequately resourced and that the penalties
for the use of firearms in crime are vigorously applied; there
is no doubt that illegal drugs and illegal firearms are associated
closely.
10. Although the introduction of firearms legislation
that is even more restrictive is doomed to be ineffective as crime
prevention measure, there is scope for making adjustments to the
legislation which would lead to an increase in the general efficiency
of the firearms licensing system - with consequent savings in
cost and time. The existing legislation is spread over several
acts which makes reference and interpretation difficult. The introduction
of a Regulatory Reform Order and a Consolidating Act has already
been considered by the Home Office; we believe that these measures
would improve administration of the firearms licensing system
and should be pursued.
11. A very considerable gain in efficiency would
be gained if licensing investigations placed more emphasis on
the applicant and less on the details of the firearms he wishes
to own: firearms are inanimate and the exact characteristics are
of minor importance - it is the character of the owner that is
of fundamental importance to public safety.
12. The fact that the various inquiries into
the Cumbria shootings have not yet been completed makes it impossible
for us to comment on the licensing administration aspects of that
incident.
Information Sharing Between Medical Professionals
and the Police
13. The consensus in the medical profession appears
to be that, in the vast majority of cases, it is not feasible
for a doctor to detect that an individual is suffering from an
unbalanced mental state of the sort which would lead to that individual
carrying out homicide with a firearm. Also, faced with a requirement
to identify cases of this type, it is likely that doctors would
over-react and thereby cause serious problems for individuals
who are perfectly normal.
14. We have no evidence to suggest that the medical
consensus on reliable detection is incorrect. The other aspect
of the situation, on which is more difficult to form an opinion,
is whether there is a reasonable chance of cases arising in which
it is obvious (even to a lay person) that mental state of a patient
with a legally-held firearm is such that he should not have access
to firearms.
15. There seems no way of evaluating that possibility,
other than to investigate the interaction with medical professionals
of those who have committed homicide with a firearm when their
minds were obviously unbalanced - most recently, the Cumbria incident.
If the perpetrators of those sorts of crime rarely attends surgeries,
there is little point in attempting to involve doctors in detecting
dangerous mental conditions.
16. The tagging of the medical records also has
security implications. The number of individuals who have access
to the NHS database will be so vast that it is inevitable that
some of them will have criminal connections; the capability for
an ill-disposed individual to identify firearms owners via tagged
records would be a matter for serious concern.
17. On balance, the implementation of the tagging
proposal appears very unlikely to achieve any increase in public
safety and the security implications need to be considered carefully.
SHARING OF
FIREARMS-RELATED
INFORMATION BETWEEN
POLICE AND
PRISONS
18. The HBSA is not in a position to make informed
comment on the sharing of information by police and prisons as
an aid to the assessment of the risks posed by offenders who may
have access to firearms.
THE DANGER
PRESENTED BY,
AND LEGISLATION
REGULATING, AIRGUNS
19. Under Section 37 of the Antisocial Behaviour
Act it is an offence to be in possession of an airgun in a public
place without good reason - and the use of an airgun to cause
injury to an individual and use to cause damage to property, are
offences under legislation that is not specific to such guns.
In addition, there are legal restrictions on the acquisition and
use of airguns by those under the age of 18 and a legal requirement
that the use of airguns by those under 14 (under 18, if the use
is outside private property) must be supervised by someone over
21.
20. The number of violent offences involving
airguns has been falling for twenty-five years: between 1983 and
2008, the number of such offences fell from 2377 to 1311 (yet
during the same period the number of violent offences not involving
airguns rose from 111,000 to 961,000).
21. The statistics for criminal damage caused
by airguns prior to 2002 are impossible to use for the purposes
of comparison, because of changes in definition introduced in
that year by the National Crime Recording Standard. However, between
2002-03 and 2007-08 the number of criminal damage incidents involving
airguns fell from 10,496 to 5756.
22. The Crime and Security Act 2010 has the potential
to reduce airgun incidents to even lower levels, but a few years
will need to elapse before its influence can be assessed.
23. We believe that the existing legislation
regarding airguns is as effective as it can be made and is also
proportionate. However, the possibility that the power to enact
airgun legislation may be delegated to the Scottish Parliament
causes us concern. The likely consequence of such delegation would
be differences between the airgun legislation passed by the English
and Scottish Parliaments - a situation which would be confusing
and divisive. Firearms and airgun legislation should be common
throughout the UK mainland.
Annex
THE EXTENT AND DIVERSITY OF THE LEGITIMATE OWNERSHIP
AND USE OF FIREARMS
GENERAL
Al. There are 138,728 firearm certificates on
issue. These cover a wide variety of arms, including fullbore
rifles, smallbore (.22") rifles, muzzle-loading pistols,
shotguns, historic breechloading arms, and those sporting air
rifles whose projectile energy at the muzzle is high enough for
them to be subject to the same controls as firearms. It is estimated
that 75% of these certificates relate to smallbore rifles.
A2. The number of shotgun certificates on issue
amounts to 574,946 and these cover 1,366,800 shotguns - an average
of 2.4 shotguns per certificate holder.
A3. It is estimated that there are about 4 million
privately-owned low powered airguns.
TARGET SHOOTING
A4. Target shooting takes place with fullbore
rifles, smallbore rifles, muzzle loading rifles and pistols, historical
breechloading arms and air pistols and air rifles. 150,000 people
participate in clay target shooting using shotguns and 250,000
in target shooting with the other arms listed.
A5. Success in target shooting requires the acceptance
of external discipline, a high degree of self-discipline, sustained
effort, intense concentration, the acquisition of technical knowledge,
the ability to analyse results and willingness to cooperate with
others. All the major target shooting organisations make a point
of encouraging young people to participate in the sport; for example,
the National Smallbore Rifle Association has 12,000 registered
instructors in its Youth Proficiency Scheme, which is funded by
Sport England. Old age does not prevent participation in target
shooting and the sport is also popular with the disabled (it features
in the Paralympic disciplines).
A6. The international aspect of the sport is
not confined to the Olympics and Paralympics: in the 2006 Commonwealth
Games, 23 of the UK's 116 medals were for shooting (the second-highest
total for a single discipline - exceeded only by the 24 medals
awarded for swimming).
COLLECTION AND
STUDY HISTORICAL
BREECHLOADING FIREARMS
A7. The UK is home to several students of historical
breechloading firearms (HBF) who are leading experts in their
fields. Research by students such as these depends heavily upon
them holding firearms certificates which allow them to possess
and develop collections of the arms that they study - the public
museums which have relevant collections are relatively few in
number and their locations are such that visits can students in
expensive long-distance travelling.
A8. Financial constraints and lack of storage
space are making it ever more difficult for museums to expand
their collections of HBF. As a consequence, the private collections
are becoming increasingly important means of preserving these
artefacts; already, there are examples in private collections
of a number of significant firearms that are not represented in
museum collections. From the student's point of view, the greatest
advantage of having a private collection is that it enables him
to use his firearms on authorised ranges - any research that does
not include testing of the firearm concerned is of restricted
value.
GAME AND
VERMIN SHOOTING
A9. 480,000 people shoot game and vermin, using
rifles, shotguns and air rifles - whichever is appropriate to
the quarry and the location. Most of the rifles are fitted with
telescopic sights and .22" is the calibre used most extensively.
A10. Hunting with firearms is a £1.6 billion
industry, supporting 70,000 jobs. The maintenance of the habitat
and management of the wildlife in areas used for game shooting
involves private and corporate expenditure of about £250
million a year (five times the annual income of the largest conservation
organisation in the UK - the Royal Society for the Protection
of Birds).
26 August 2010
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