Unity Campaign - Allow the ownership and use of .22 calibre rimfire target pistols

[TankJon]

Hi folks,

If you aren't aware of the Unity Campaign then here is what it's about...

The Unity Campaign

A campaign led by Firearms-UK Association based upon our e-petition to HM Government, whom we respectfully request to make the necessary changes to the Firearms Act that would allow for .22 Rimfire pistols to be owned and used under the current section 1 certification system.


Shooting is one of the most enjoyable and inclusive sports there are, indeed almost everyone can participate in shooting of some form regardless of age, gender or physical ability, even visually impaired people can participate often competing directly with able bodied shooters. Shooting is also an interest that instills personal responsibility and discipline amongst its proponent’s, qualities that sometimes seem so neglected in modern society. It is a teaching aid encompassing so many science subjects. It is an incredibly social sport where lifelong friendships are forged, and a large contributor to the UK economy, its positive aspects are so often ignored or dismissed in today’s Britain.

A quote from a Firearms UK - Unity campaign supporter

February 2014 saw an LBC97 Radio interview response to a listeners question by a high profile Political Party Leader in support of reconsideration of the UK Firearms Legislation to permit the return of prohibited firearms suggesting it is poorly drafted and unnecessary. Similarly national Newspaper’s have recently held online polls on their web sites in which significant support was in favour of the return of some prohibited firearms. These polls will contain responses from both shooters and non-shooters suggesting not inconsiderable public support for common sense approaches to legislation.

The recent hosting of the Olympic Games in London 2012, the pending Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014 and the success and popularity of the shooting events, in addition to non sporting support already alluded to, and as a direct result of feedback from Firearms UK supporters and followers leads us to the conclusion the time is right to start this campaign that will enable the people of the UK to participate in this internationally recognised sport that is currently unavailable to the majority of the law abiding population.

We understand that “.22 pistols shooting” may not be of interest to all shooters but it was once a very popular and heavily participated activity so we encourage all firearms enthusiasts to support our petition in an act of support for shooting in general and as an act of solidarity which will set the scene for future challenges.

This initiative is one of many positive actions by Firearms UK working with the shooting community that will serve to redress the balance of UK law in favour of law abiding firearms enthusiasts.

Here is the link to the e-petition.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/62588

You would think that in the UK with over half a million SGC holders and over 150,000 FAC holders. Not to mention the 100s of 1000s of airgun shooters (approximately 4 million air weapons are owned in the UK) that we'd hit the 100,000 signatures for the petition no trouble. Sadly that is not the case. We have just managed to scrape over 15,500 signatures.

Please for the sake of supporting the future of our sport sign the petition. Shooting in the UK has been hobbled by the largely apathetic attitude of its participants. Now with Airgun licensing just around the corner for Scotland it probably wont be long before it hits the rest of the UK. If you don't support all shooting disciplines how can you expect anyone else to support yours.

Thanks.

[tufty]

Jon,this petition has done the rounds on here many times,and I would guess nearly everyone has signed it already,but good on you for jogging people's memory again,hopefully a few more will add their names.
I shoot Free Pistol,and it really is now a minority discipline,due to the restrictions on these pistols,you can't legally even try one unless it's on your FAC,and I can't allow anyone to try mine,even if they have a slot for one on their FAC.
It's interesting to note that since the handgun ban,according to home office statistics,there is no record of a .22lr target pistol being used in a violent crime.

Neale

[TankJon]

I'm hoping it will jog a few memories and prompt some others to sign it. I really do hope the "it won't happen so what's the point" brigade reconsider signing to. I have heard this on a few occasions and it's quite saddening.

[urx]

Already signed this
I suggest you need to get to the interested people that aren't on forums
Perhaps the shooting mags might contribute small adverts for this for a nominal fee?

[English]

As with others who have commented, I'm one of the 15K or so that has signed up already!

If I recall correctly, there were only 70K or so FAC's granted for pistol ownership at its peak so its always going to be on a sticky wicket to get 100K to sign up!

I wish it good luck I really do, but a lot of people are bone idle when it comes to most things so I guess that this is just another that will pass many by?

[TankJon]

As with others who have commented, I'm one of the 15K or so that has signed up already!

If I recall correctly, there were only 70K or so FAC's granted for pistol ownership at its peak so its always going to be on a sticky wicket to get 100K to sign up!

I wish it good luck I really do, but a lot of people are bone idle when it comes to most things so I guess that this is just another that will pass many by?

You are right English. Most will do nothing. I just hope enough will do something.

[Mr Meteor]

Signed the petition as soon as I heard about it.
IMHO unity amongst shooting enthusiasts is of the utmost importance for the future of the sport
ATVB,
Adrian.

[TankJon]

Seeing as my other posts were removed. Any chance of making this a sticky?

[Hemmers]

I've signed, but I think there needs to be a hell of a lot more thought put into distribution of effort.

Timing
There is an election next year. This is a controversial and often emotive topic.
That is enough to tell anyone that NOTHING will come from it. It's too soon - if they somehow pushed it through the coalition, then people would still be flinging "think of the children" around next year when they're busy trying to get re-elected. It doesn't matter if 100k people sign it, it's too close to an election!

Sorry, that sounds very negative, but it's the cold hard truth. The Romans didn't win wars by rolling up and scrapping. They planned, they arrived first, they seized the high ground, they made the enemy come to them, across the terrain the Romans chose. The battlefield was no accident, it was carefully selected by the Romans depending on what units that army had with them, and those units were positioned to best exploit the lay of the land.
If one unit had dashed off half-dressed to scrap with the enemy they'd spotted, without bringing the rest of the army with them, they'd get clobbered!


TIMING IS EVERYTHING in politics, and the timing of this is so far out it's not funny.

Repeat after me:
TIMING IS EVERYTHING IN POLITICS

What's in a Campaign?
If you're going to run a campaign, the only things worth doing right now are developing the grassroots movement, as well as political outreach, and talking to MPs and prospective MPs. Not big-media placard waving. Just sitting down, talking, persuading, bringing them into clubs, making sure they know what actually goes on in clubs and on shoots, not the image they've been drip-fed by lobbyists from the other side.
You come armed with 12 months of build-up, political outreach, the (hopefully) solid results from the Commonwealth Games in July (which with a following wind will include a few cartridge pistol medals), etc.

Then you hit them with the petition after the election, and not a moment earlier, but not just someone posting the link around on forums. That's not a campaign, anyone can do that in an evening. Sorry, nothing personal to anyone, it's just there's more to a campaign than putting the word around.

Through the combined resources of all the bodies, you have a team of "account managers", who each has a list of MPs they are responsible for communicating with, informing and answering queries for. They make sure that when an MP like Kate Hoey puts up an EDM, as a planned part of the campaign (you need MPs onside from the off or you're pissing into the wind), that you've already lined up 200+ MPs to sign it, which is the sort of critical mass you need to make the government sit up and take notice, then she drops the Private Member's Bill, with all the detail already worked out, and you've got the mass behind it to actually get it debated and voted on.

It needs to come from all the bodies - and not just BASC posting a link saying "there's this petition here you might want to sign". BASC AND NRA AND CPSA AND NSRA AND BFTA AND CA (AND [the rest]) saying "Here is OUR petition, as part of OUR campaign. We ALL have ownership of this and we are calling on OUR members to sign it."

Tl;DR
I'm not knocking the intent or the passion, but there just seems to be a certain naivety as to how Parliament works, and the timing of the Campaign. Asking the Government for pistols this side of May 2015 is a waste of breath. That doesn't mean we shouldn't all be working on the grassroots and political outreach, but going to Westminster is a waste of time for the next 12 months. Please, noone expend any effort on it - there are plenty of other things that need doing first!

Oh, by the way
The other thing is that stuff is happening behind the scenes. A number of GB-Squad Pistol shooters got Section 5 permits for their target pistols to train in the UK prior to the Olympics, and they've still got them, with a home Commonwealths in mind. Hopefully they'll be hanging onto them afterwards as well. That didn't just happen by magic, but by British Shooting and the relevant bodies working with civil servants and the Home Secretary to make that happen. Quietly, without making a fuss or attracting the attention of the anti-shooting lobby who could have blown it up in the press and stuck a spanner in the works. They have their discussions going on, discussions which I very much doubt FirearmsUK are privy to. A foot in the door is not to be sniffed at nor endangered, and any campaign to get pistols back needs to be informed and work around whatever sensitive negotiations are going on behind closed doors.
Some have openly criticised the GB shooters as sellouts and traitors betraying the club shooter who can't have what they have, but you know what? We went over a decade with no private pistol ownership. And now there is some. Extremely limited, but there is some. If you're going to shout and throw your toys out the pram for all or nothing, you'll usually end up disappointed. It's not like we've got any cards to play here. We're coming to the table empty-handed asking "Please sir, can we have some more". It's not in our interest to be petulent or greedy. The process will take a lot longer to undo than it took to put in place, and it won't happen overnight.


Public Perception
Also, as I've mentioned elsewhere, someone needs to take a long hard look at some of the posters on FirearmsUK's site. Policy isn't made by shooters. It's made by politicians, most of whom aren't shooters (though some are, and some aren't but are actively sympathetic). Therefore what in the the name of all that is holy do we think this looks like to a member of the general public?

Does the average MP enjoy looking down the business end of a revolver, being brandished by someone known to push the boundaries of ethical or legal behaviour? That's the image we're trying to portray here? "Yes, please give us back our pistols so we can play at being Dirty Harry!"

I know that's not the intention, in the same way it was not the intention to make this advert look like the PC had his johnson hanging out. But you can bet your bottom dollar that to average Joe Public, that's what it looks like. Threatening and scary. They're not going to vote in favour of giving back pistols to people portraying themselves like that.

Same with the SNP one. £200 for an airgun licence? I thought we were busy trying to show that an FAC doesn't cost £200 to administer, except in force areas with really poor licensing management, and possibly those with highly dispersed populations where an FEO has to drive hours each way to the darkest Highlands or Cumbria to do a home visit. But definitely not in the majority of cases, because that's why we're busy shouting down those who would have FAC prices bumped to three figures. Mixed messages much? If airgun licensing did cost £200/ticket, you don't imagine the SNP would actually pay that - it'd be passed on to the shooter. They've done the sums, be sure of it.

Just seem to be shooting ourselves in the foot as a sport. Which is ridiculously really since we all take safety far to seriously to do something as stupid as that.

[RobinC]

Sadly Hemmers has it spot on and its very informative to those who have signed but did not understand why nothing has happened or is ever likely to however much we want it too.
We are simply too small a minority to win using the political route and in some ways this well meaning petition has actualy been counter productive, as it has merely demonstrated how small a group wish it to happen especialy when you consider that many are just supporting the shooting cause from other disciplines. If section 5's ever did return to general FAC holders, the numbers who would actualy shoot competitive, and by competive I mean as in club, county and national and BPC and in recognised international events such as, standard pistol, and sport pistol would be hundreds not thousands.

The exemption for elite level shooters does exist, but for those would be club shooters who feel they are restricted when the elite are not be aware it is a fiasco exemption.
To qualify for a section 5 the shooter must first achieve a series of international level qualifying scores in approved circumstances with a five shot air pistol. Then they will be supported in their application for a section five, but only if there is a quota place available as the total number is restricted to 25. So it relies on one dropping out for a new one to come in! The pistol is then restricted to use on specific named ranges at the present in England the only one is at Bisley. The times and range use are very restricted, only section 5 authorised people are permitted on the range, even the range boundaries are restricted, no non section 5 person is even allowed close! Only range officers who are section five authorised are permitted, it is certainly not free use and training, it is very restricted. Most who do it seriously still predominantly train with a five shot air pistol or travel abroad.
Much as we would love to see it return, the odds are very much against us, but we should still try.

[Hemmers]

Sadly Hemmers has it spot on and its very informative to those who have signed but did not understand why nothing has happened or is ever likely to however much we want it too.
We are simply too small a minority to win using the political route and in some ways this well meaning petition has actualy been counter productive, as it has merely demonstrated how small a group wish it to happen especialy when you consider that many are just supporting the shooting cause from other disciplines. If section 5's ever did return to general FAC holders, the numbers who would actualy shoot competitive, and by competive I mean as in club, county and national and BPC and in recognised international events such as, standard pistol, and sport pistol would be hundreds not thousands.

Wow, a "spot one"! I was expecting to get summarily flamed.Glad I've managed to get the point across without making it sound as though I'm overly criticising people who have evidently put in quite a bit of work.

The one bit I would disagree with is the numbers game. It would be thousands I reckon. There are a lot of LWSR and Gallery Rifle shooters who'd go to pistol in a heartbeat if they had the opportunity. Not immediately perhaps - clubs would need to get the appropriate targetry in place (though in some cases existing GR targets were brought in from pistol anyway), and it wouldn't be an overnight thing - there would be a ramp-up as ROs and Instructors were trained up, ranges tweaked where necessary so they could be used for pistol again as well as rifle, etc.
It would take time to get the sport back up to speed, for people to make the decision to go back from rifle to pistol again and buy their gear. In terms of equipment, most clubs have built up their armoury over decades, most won't have the liquid resource to just go out and buy a bunch of club sport pistols, especially if they need to modify their range a bit to support pistol targets so that could slow the reintroduction, but it would happen.

The other thing that's worth mentioning is that legislation takes time to pass. It needs to be read in the Commons, voted on, amendments voted on, then the Lord need to vote on it, they usually send it back with amendments, the Commons need to vote on those amendments, send it back up, etc, etc. Parliamentary time is really hard to come by.
I am of the understanding (and I have this second had so it could all be smoke and mirrors) that the Tories made an unsolicited approach to BSSC before the last election suggesting that if they were to bring a new Firearms Act to consolidate and simplify the past half-decade of disparate legislation, they would welcome input and suggestions on any changes that would be desirable to the current regime. The implication as I took it being that the list of Section 5 articles could be "amended".
That's actually how it would need to happen - a whole new firearms act which happens to change Section 5. Parliament does not have time to pass an entire act solely to change the bit about pistols.
If it were to happen, it needed to happen early in the Parliament's 5 years, so it was forgotten by 2015.

Did they? Well unless someone from BSSC confirms or denies, we'll never know - the Tories were forced into a Coalition, which would have made it tricky to force such a bill through at the best of times.
On top of that the tragic Cumbrian Shootings put talk of a simplified firearms bill out the window unless you wanted stuff to get tighter - nothing happening was the best way out of that. If you'd tried to pass a consolidated firearms bill, things would have got tighter at the same time, such would have been the expectation and mood in the House. Amendments would have been tabled and would have been passed. Shotguns on S1, justify your ownership, join a club, that sort of thing.

Timing.

[TankJon]

To be fair Hemmers I understand what you are saying but the people at Firearms UK are not politicians. They are normal folks that have had enough and decided to try and do something about it. They do not have the resources or the lobbying power that the likes of the BASC, BSSC etc.. enjoy.

Sadly though, we are a small minority but we are made even smaller by the inaction of the large part of the shooting community.

And yes, Olympic level shooters have been granted section 5 but how does that help the grass roots shooter? The requirements for getting a section 5 are ridiculously restrictive at best and do not in ANY way encourage new people to take over when the current team members retire from the sport. Which no doubt is exactly what the government wants to see happen.

All that being said you do make some interesting points which I will forward on to the Firearms UK guys.

[TankJon]

Out of interest though Hemmers have you done anything to help further the acceptance of shooting and the legal issues affecting shooters in the UK? Not an attack but a genuine question.

[Hemmers]

To be fair Hemmers I understand what you are saying but the people at Firearms UK are not politicians. They are normal folks that have had enough and decided to try and do something about it. They do not have the resources or the lobbying power that the likes of the BASC, BSSC etc.. enjoy.

I appreciate the point, but if you're going to play at politics, you have to become a bit of a politician. Gill Marshall-Andrews is married to an ex-MP. That's who you're up against - highly connected political movers.

Sadly though, we are a small minority but we are made even smaller by the inaction of the large part of the shooting community.

And yes, Olympic level shooters have been granted section 5 but how does that help the grass roots shooter? The requirements for getting a section 5 are ridiculously restrictive at best and do not in ANY way encourage new people to take over when the current team members retire from the sport. Which no doubt is exactly what the government wants to see happen.

Who are the current team? You're not thinking it's the same crowd that were shooting in 1997 are you? And that as they disappear, pistol will disappear into the darkness? With the exception of Mick Gault who has been in the game a long time, most of the GB and Home Nation squads are youngsters who have come up through air pistol and gone abroad to take up cartridge pistol - Coral Kennerley, Geri Buckley, Victoria Mullins, Gorgs Geikie, Julia Lydall, Kristian Callaghan... all under 30. They haven't let a little thing like the law stop them. They've trained around part time jobs, they don't take holidays - just overseas training camps. Every penny goes on funding their training. Nothing to stop anyone doing that - if that's the lifestyle you choose for yourself, and make no mistake, it is a lifestyle choice...

As for the comment about "the government". Who, the current Coalition cabinet? The previous Labour cabinet? The Permanent Secretaries and Civil Servants who actually make all the policy decisions happen? All 650MPs in the Commons? All ~780 Members of the Lords? It's that sort of careless comment that alienates the people in government who want to help. British Shooting and BSSC have their contacts, they have supporters within government, but they're biding their time.

This is why, IMO, campaigns from anywhere outside of the bodies are doomed to fail. FirearmsUK can run a petition, but they can't stand up and say "us and our members" - because they don't have any.
Mike Eveleigh can stands up and say "We and our 120k members", because he speaks for BASC.
In fact, having more than 80k members means the government is required by law to consult with them on relevant legislation as a "major stakeholder representative".

That they haven't is because they have some political acumen. The last opportunity to push for change was 2010, and Derrick Bird rapidly made that position untenable. The next window of opportunity may be in the 12 months following the next election (depending on who wins. If Labour get in, or another coalition then forget about it).

It's a bit like sending a probe to Mars - you don't just built a probe and launch it - you have to wait until Mars is in the right place in relation to Earth - launch windows come around every 4 years or so. It requires planning, careful timing, and if the weather closes down over that window, you're stuffed. No point fighting it, nature wins every time.

Out of interest though Hemmers have you done anything to help further the acceptance of shooting and the legal issues affecting shooters in the UK? Not an attack but a genuine question.

- Various committee positions within a university club
- Making sure the uni paper gave us equal coverage to the "big sports" (seeing as we were far more successful than rugby and football anyway)
- Getting my Club Coach ticket and putting in countless hours coaching juniors especially though also other members
- Dragging reserved club shooters to their first open meetings and giving them a taste for competition
- Serving on committee for another club after I left uni
- Letter writing to every candidate before the last election
- Visiting our current (Tory) MP in surgery, on matters both shooting and otherwise.
- Volunteering at National meetings doing photography and facebooking about them, spreading the good word, etc.
- Getting match reports and articles into mainstream (local) media where possible, just trying to get shooting slotted in next to football, such that people come to accept it as normally as any other sport.

I haven't attempted a national campaign, but then as I say, I believe that needs to come from a coalition of the governing bodies, and the timing hasn't been right for a long time.


As I say, I don't mean this as an attack on the organisers of FirearmsUK, not at all. Clearly there's a lot of passion and effort going in, but I hate to see passion misdirected. Pushing for pistols right now is an utter waste of time. Won't happen this side of the election. That's a simple political reality.
If people are going to expend time and effort on something, then it would be better directed at getting new members into their club, coaching members, making those range improvements they've been talking about for ages, political outreach, etc, etc. With regard to shooting, nothing useful will be achieved in Westminster between now and the election.