Letter to my local paper:

Sir

Orkney has one of the highest rates of legitimate firearms ownership in the United Kingdom yet we have no armed crime and very few firearms related incidents.

The Labour government, in breach of its 2001 manifesto pledge that “We have no intention whatsoever of placing restrictions on the sports of angling and shooting." is now undertaking a review of firearms controls in the UK and has created a consultation document to which it is seeking responses, presumably so they can blame any new legislation on the public at large.

In the forward to the document, David Blunkett claims that “We want to minimise bureaucracy for those who enforce and administer the law, and we don’t want to impose unnecessary burdens on those who possess and use guns lawfully”. However, the document goes on to introduce a whole raft of worrying proposals that, if enacted, would create even more unnecessary bureaucratic burden on the police and severely impact shooting and gun ownership in the county. Just a few of these include:

· Compulsory training and regular testing of gun owners.
· Imposing section one (rifle) controls on all remaining shotguns.
· Prohibiting and confiscating all remaining semi automatic rifles and shotguns regardless of calibre or magazine capacity.
· Making shotgun ammunition subject to quantity restrictions and ‘secure’ storage requirements.
· Putting reloading components (and specifically primers) under firearms certificate controls.
· Making it illegal to borrow a firearm or shotgun, even to use in the presence of the occupier of the land over which it is used.
· Reducing the duration of firearms and shotgun certificates to two years.
· Increasing the age and further restricting the circumstances under which young people can shoot. This also applies to air weapons.
· ‘Practical’ shooting disciplines to be outlawed.
· Making gun shops restrict access by age and prohibiting window displays (effectively making them subject to the same restrictions as sex shops).
· Licensing all deactivated firearms and making all of them subject to the 1995 deactivation standards.

The government are seeking responses to this document which can be found on the Home Office website at:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs3/c...n_firearms.pdf

Alternatively, copies can be requested from the Home Office at:

Firearms Controls Consultation
Home Office
5th Floor
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London SW1H 9AT

Responses can be e-mailed to the Home Office at:

firearmscontrolsconsultation@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

I would urge all shooters and firearm owners in Orkney to respond to this document and to point out, politely yet firmly, why the suggested restrictions are unjust, unnecessary, unworkable and counterproductive.

Yours faithfully

Chris Werb
3 Wards Park
St. Margaret’s Hope.