Memorandum submitted by the Gun Trade
Association Ltd
1. The Gun Trade Association Ltd. The GTA
is the officially recognised body representing the legitimate
sporting, recreational and professional gun trade in the UK. The
700 members that it serves comprise the considerable majority
of the businesses involved in the industry. They range from the
sporting firearms manufacturers through to the smallest retail
outlet and include the cartridge manufacturers, the importers,
wholesalers and retailers of all sporting firearms related products.
The GTA also represents The Airgun Manufacturers & Trade Association
Ltd. (AMTA), in both policy and legislative areas. The UK sporting
firearms industry supports some 70,000 jobs and is responsible
for an annual turnover of some £1.6 billion. The GTA is a
Council Member of the British Shooting Sports Council (BSSC),
and both contributed to, and wholly endorses, the submission made
by that body.
2. Use of legally held guns in crime The
GTA endorses the submission from the BSSC and others that legally
held guns are very rarely used in crime and such use as there
is has been in restricted circumstances which cannot be predicted.
3. Relationship between gun control and
gun crime The GTA regularly monitors reports of levels of armed
crime and both statutory and administrative measures that have
been introduced. There is no evidence to suggest that recent or
further restrictions of legally held firearms will reduce armed
crime and we refer in particular to the fact that the ban on handguns
in 1997 had no impact on the use of handguns in crime. Again,
we endorse the BSSC's submission on this point.
4. State of Current laws. Existing legislation
is now extremely complex even for practitioners in the field.
Since the 1968 Act (which is still the primary source of the law),
a flow of amending Acts and Rules, together with individual measures
inserted in more general legislation, plus the considerable measures
regularly emanating from the EU makes it almost impossible for
the user to understand what is required of him. The GTA Office
spends much time, on a daily basis, dealing with firearms licensing
and general firearms legislative enquiries from its members.
5. Existing law has many unintended or misunderstood
consequences which the non certificate holder will find difficult
to understand. For example, if the owner of a .22 rifle damages
it, or merely wishes to replace it, he is likely, first, to shop
around and select the replacement rifle from the many different
makes on the market. Having made his selection he will have to
arrange with the dealer to keep the rifle for him whilst he applies
for a variation to his certificate. This involves filling out
a four page form and then waiting up to the six weeks or more
that is the usual delay in varying a certificate. Once the variation
is approved both certificate holder and the dealer will then notify
the police of the transaction. The dealer will have had to retain
"frozen stock" for a long period and if several such
weapons are held, this can produce a cash flow problem. The end
product, of course, is that a man who had one .22 rifle still
has only one .22 rifle and the police will have been given details
of each rifle. An enormous amount of the time of the police, the
dealer and the certificate holder has been spent for mere bureaucratic
gain.
6. It is felt, however, that changes to
the legislation should follow detailed consideration of the nature
of controls that are required with proper thought given to the
mass of unintended consequence likely to be created.
7. The question of sharing some medical
information with general practitioners has been under consideration
for some time. There are problems regarding security and medical
ethics which are still being considered and no useful comment
can be made at this stage. We again endorse the submission points
raised by the BSSC on this question.
8. The question of exchanges of information
between police and prison staff is one for the Home Office.
AIRGUNS
9. The GTA is particularly concerned with
the issue of air gun legislation, especially since the Committee's
invitation to submit evidence makes special reference to the recommendations
of the predecessor Committee in 1999-2000 which proposed licensing
all air guns. (Appendix 1 cites the various responses to the Committee's
proposals at that time and, in particular, on page 10 says; "the
Government does not accept that the introduction of a licensing
regime as recommended can be justified at present"). The
effect of a licensing regime would be to irrevocably damage the
air gun industry, to seriously damage an Olympic sport, to make
the safe training of young shots much more difficult and to prevent
parents and their children from enjoying a less formalised sport
within the confines of their home or garden. This latter is by
far the greatest sector of legitimate air gun use and there are
few in the competitive or field sports use of firearms today who
did not start in this fashion. It is universally recognised that
the UK airgun industry leads the field in terms of innovation
through research and development and its products are highly regarded,
worldwide.
10. The GTA, like all responsible bodies
and individual citizens, is concerned about level of misuse of
air guns, as it is about all such crime. It has commissioned research
and has consistently supported measures that seemed likely to
impact on the problem. It has analysed the effect of the full
scale licensing imposed in 1988 on shotgun certificate holding.
A reduction in shotgun certificate numbers of almost one third
had a serious impact on trade and sport but had no effect on crime.
We believe that only a minority would go through the treadmill
of firearms licensing to retain existing air guns. Unregistered
air guns might enter the black market and the harm would be compounded
by a problem that could take generations to resolve. It is a well
known fact that Section 1 firearms that should have been registered
in 1920 continue to appear and continue to be used in crime.
Legitimate Uses of Air Guns
11. The best and most widely accepted estimate
indicates that there are some seven million air guns in the hands
of four million people in England and Wales. Some 1,500,000,000
(1.5 billion) air gun pellets are sold each year of which 65%
are of domestic manufacture and 35% are imported.
12. Between 170,000 and 250,000 air guns
are sold by dealers each year in England and Wales with about
35% of domestic production for export. The industry employs well
in excess of one thousand people in the manufacture and distribution
of airguns. The value of the trade is in the region of £50,000,000.
Competitive Shooting
13. Airgun events, both rifle and pistol,
are included in the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, European
Championships and World Championships. Domestically there is a
hierarchy of competitions at local, county and national level.
The National Smallbore Rifle Association is the Governing body.
Target shooting is popular amongst youth groups such as the Scouts,
Pony Clubs and others. In 1996, the Scouts conducted a poll of
parents who were overwhelmingly in favour of retaining airgun
shooting as part of the Scout programme. Competitive airgun shooting
demands high standards of discipline and self control and is seen
as a character forming activity. Although in every way a laudable
activity, club shooting probably only amounts for a small percentage
of total airgun use.
Field and Sporting Use
14. Airguns are used by professional pest
controllers in circumstances where the use of an ordinary firearm
(even a .22 rim-fire) would cause risk. These include urban areas
and inside buildings. They are also much used by farmers or their
guest shooters for control of rats and other pests up to and including
rabbits.
Casual Target Practice
15. There is no doubt that casual target
practice (generally known as "plinking"), is by far
the most common use of airguns. Such use is generally outside
the public gaze, indoors or in a garden and involves parents teaching
or shooting with their children. The airgun is the stepping stone
for many who will use firearms a little later. It provides a means
of instilling discipline, safety and responsibility. Most of today's
adults who shoot in the field or on the target range will have
started with airguns.
Airgun Misuse
16. Expressed as a proportion of legitimate
use, misuse of airguns is extremely rare though the fact that
legitimate airgun use is out of the public eye, whilst misuse
is often very much in, it has created a misconception.
17. One of the major problems of dealing
with many aspects of airgun misuse is that of displacement. If
the young vandal could not obtain an airgun, it seems that he
is likely to commit the same acts of vandalism or anti social
behaviour with a brick or a stick.
18. The GTA has a vested interest in helping
reduce, as far as possible, the misuse of airguns. It is the legitimate
user of airguns and the legitimate trader rather than the vandal
who is likely to suffer from ill directed legislation. If proposals
for licensing were to be adopted, legitimate users might apply
for licences, but the vandal would not. He is and would remain
anonymous and the prospects of his possession of an airgun being
detected are very small.
19. The cost of imposing a licensing regime
of four million users would be enormous. Assuming that most existing
airgun users were to apply for a licence, the demand on police
time would be excessive. If the system of variations mentioned
above were to be applied and a system of regular renewals were
involved that excessive burden would be perpetual. It is also
quite likely that only a minority, consisting of the most responsible
users, would apply for licences.
20. The GTA has long espoused a policy of
education and enforcement as the most productive way of reducing
airgun misuse. (Appendix 2 quotes extracts from the 10th and 11th
Report of the Firearms Consultative Committee where the Committee
recommends education proposals for airgun use proposed by the
GTA). It has to be recognised that the problem cannot be eliminated
and the extreme solutions often suggested would rank alongside
proposals to ban baseball because baseball bats feature amongst
the blunt instruments used in homicide.
21. Attempts to maintain useful statistical
records generate almost insurmountable problems. Appendix 3 presents
the published figures for airgun misuse for the past twenty years.
Figures are available for longer periods but changes in Home Office
Statistical methods make it almost impossible to make any comparisons.
22. Criminal damage (often of quite low
value), makes up the largest proportion of airgun offences. Of
5,037 recorded airgun offences in 1989, 3042 (60.4%) were criminal
damage; for 1999 criminal damage amounted to 72% and for 2008-09
it amounted to 77% of the total. In the early years criminal damage
was recorded only if the value of the damage exceeded £20,
but the value of £20 fell rapidly so that more and more cases
were included. Both the figures for criminal damage and the figure
for total offences were more representative of an inflation guide
than of any real increase in misuse of airguns.
23. Details of the various changes Home
Office recording and counting methods are reproduced in Appendix
4 to avoid production of the relevant volumes. They show that
figures for the period up to 2002-03 cannot properly be compared
with figures from 2003-04 to 2008-09. The figures for total amount
of airgun misuse, for slight wounding and damage are, at the very
best, misleading. The figures for homicide with airguns are so
low that trends cannot be discerned. There have been 16 cases
in a 20 year period. Only from 2002-03 onwards can any comparison
be made.
24. The figures for criminal damage, slight
wounding and for the total number of offences are such that no
meaningful comparison can be made prior to 2002. Comparisons are
possible from 2002 when NCRS should have caused a significant
increase in all airgun offences. But what we see is a sharp increase
in 2003-04 reducing very rapidly thereafter with a halving of
the 2002-03 figures by 2008-09. The trend starts slowly, possibly
because of the inflationary effect of NCRS, but shows every sign
of being a persistent change downwards.
25. The 2008-09 statistics note this change
at Box 2.2 and attribute it to the Violent Crime Reduction Act
which came into law in October 2007 and introduced new restrictions
for imitation firearms and air weapons. (See Appendix 4). It is
claimed that the Act restricted the sale of air weapons to licensed
firearm dealers and raised the minimum age for owning or buying
an air weapon from 14 to 18. It is also claimed that "the
Act coincided with large falls in the number of firearm offences
where an air weapon has been involved though it is admitted that
air weapon offences have been falling steadily since 2003-04."
26. None of what is said there in connection
with airguns is correct. An Act that came into effect in October
2007 can hardly have influenced events in 2003-04. The VCR Act
applied only to sales by way of business and not to private sales.
Sales via dealers have actually gone up, not down. Whilst the
age at which a person could buy an airgun was raised to 18 (from
17, not 14), the relevant age for possession on private premises
with the consent of the owner remains at 14.
27. Section 37 of the Anti-social Behaviour
Act 2003 deals with possession in a public place and removed complexities
found in previous legislation. It prohibits the possession of
an air weapon in any public place without lawful authority or
reasonable excuse. The age of the person is not an issue, neither
is the question of whether it was covered in some way or whether
it was loaded or not. This is now a simple offence with a single
defence in appropriate cases.
28. The GTA has long seen rigorous enforcement
as a major factor in reducing airgun offences. Many police officers
have sought simplicity in the law. Amongst the mass of legislation
that a constable must enforce, worries about complexities in airgun
law have tended against rigorous enforcement.
29. It is the position of the GTA (1) that
airgun offences are falling quite dramatically at a time when,
because of changes in recording methods, the figures should have
been increasing; (2) better enforcement of simplified laws is
producing results; (3) enforcement levels should be increased
and (4) nothing more needs to be done at this time. The GTA is
also firmly of the opinion that, despite the recommendations of
the Calman Commission, airgun legislation should not be devolved
to Scotland and should remain in the control of Westminster.
APPENDIX 1
RECORDED OFFENCES IN WHICH AIR GUNS WERE
INVOLVED ENGLAND AND WALES 1989—2008-09
| | |
| | |
| Year | Total |
Homicide | Wound
Serious
| Wound
Slight | Damage
|
| | |
| | |
| 1989 | 5,037 | 3
| 146 | 1,701 | 3,042
|
| 1990 | 5,380 | 1
| 191 | 1,853 | 3,351
|
| 1991 | 5,464 | 2
| 192 | 1545 | 3,501
|
| 1992 | 6,097 | -
| 207 | 1,634 | 6,097
|
| 1993 | 6,332 | -
| 200 | 1,502 | 4,044
|
| 1994 | 7,155 | -
| 207 | 1,504 | 5,223
|
| 1995 | 7,549 | 1
| 185 | 1,343 | 5,717
|
| 1996 | 7,648 | -
| 119 | 1,266 | 5,861
|
| 1997 | 7,509 | -
| 75 | 1,374 | 5,798
|
| *1998 | 8,665 | -
| 88 | 1,381 | 6,362
|
| 1999 | 10,103 | -
| 80 | 1,806 | 7,330
|
| 2000 | 10,227 | 1
| 133 | 1,654 | 7,674
|
| 2001 | 12,377 | 2
| 171 | 1,748 | 9,559
|
| 2002 | 13,822 | 1
| 166 | 2,220 | 10,496
|
| 2003 | 13,756 | -
| 156 | 2,238 | 10,272
|
| 2004 | 11,825 | 1
| 157 | 1,353 | 9,308
|
| 2005 | 10,437 | 1
| 150 | 1,062 | 8,165
|
| 2006 | 8,839 | 3
| 93 | 956 | 6,900
|
| 2007 | 7,578 | -
| 104 | 1,267 | 5,756
|
| 2008 | 6,042 | -
| 103 | 1,034 | 4630
|
| | |
| | |
* From 1998 the figures are for the financial year, thus 2008 refers to 2008-09
| | | |
| |
| | |
| | |
APPENDIX 2
EXTRACTS FROM HOME OFFICE STATISTICAL BULLETINS CHANGES
IN RECORDING AIRGUN OFFENCE
CRIMINAL STATISTICS,
ENGLAND AND
WALES 2002-03, SUPPLEMENTARY
VOLUME 1, HOMICIDE
AND GUN
CRIME, PAGE
26:
"Changes in the counting rules on 1 April 1998 affected
both the methods of counting and the coverage for recorded crime
and had the effect of inflating the number of crimes recorded.
For some offence groups—homicide, violence against the person
endangering life, robbery and burglary—there was likely
to be little effect of numbers of firearm crimes recorded. However,
the changes will have had more effect on figures for more minor
violence and criminal damage. This would have a particular impact
on the number of air weapon crimes recorded."
"Similarly, the implementation of the National Crime
Recording Standard (NCRS) by police forces on 1 April 2002 will
have increased the number of crimes recorded. Again, it was not
possible to assess accurately the effect of this change on recorded
firearm crimes. This change inflated the overall number of violence
against the person and criminal damage offences, but had less
effect on the number of robberies. Many firearm offences are amongst
the less serious categories, for example criminal damage involving
an airgun and these types of offences are amongst those most likely
to have been affected by the NCRS. However, the more serious crimes
are not expected to be as greatly affected by the latest recording
changes. Some police forces adopted the principles of NCRS in
advance of its national implementation, and this may have affected
figures for 2001-02".
CRIMINAL STATISTICS,
ENGLAND AND
WALES 2008-09, SUPPLEMENTARY
VOLUME 1, HOMICIDE
AND GUN
CRIME, BOX
2.1:
"The introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard
(NCRS) by police forces on 1 April 2002 brought in a more victim-focussed
reporting system, where victim accounts had to be accepted unless
there was credible evidence to the contrary. While no estimates
were calculated to assess the effect of this new standard on the
number of firearm offences recorded, it is known that this change
inflated the overall number of violence against the person and
criminal damage offences but had less effect on the number of
robberies (see Simmons et al., 2003). Due to this change, it is
not possible to directly compare figures prior to 2002-03 with
those for later years."
"From 1 April 2008 there was a change in offence classification
which for the first time collected separate information on grievous
bodily harm (GBH) without intent (rather than as part of a broader
`other wounding' category). This, combined with a clarification
in the counting rules for grievous bodily harm with intent led
to a step change in levels of `most serious violence' for some
police forces. This means that figures for GBH offences in 2008-09
are not comparable with those for earlier years. The overall totals
of firearm offences are not affected by this change."
CRIMINAL STATISTICS,
ENGLAND AND
WALES 2008-09, SUPPLEMENTARY
VOLUME 1, HOMICIDE
AND GUN
CRIME, BOX
2.2:
"The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 came into law
in October 2007 and introduced new restrictions for imitation
firearms and air weapons."
"For air weapons, the Act restricted the sale of air
weapons to licensed dealers and raised the minimum age for owning
or buying an air weapon from 14 to 18. For imitation weapons,
the import or sale of realistic imitation weapons was made illegal
by the Act."
"The introduction of this Act has coincided with large
falls in the number of firearms offences where an imitation or
air weapon has been involved. However, it has not been possible
to assess the exact impact of the introduction of this legislation
and air weapon offences have been falling steadily since 2003-04."
26 August 2010
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