BASC launches campaign against age restrictions for airgun use

BASC has launched a campaign to raise awareness and lobby against a Home Office proposal that will see 14 to 17 year-olds lose the ability to use airguns unsupervised on private premises.

The proposal within the Home Office’s firearms safety consultation will remove this vital exception within the law in a move that will impact thousands of young shots.

The proposal will see teenagers only being able to undertake pest control or target practice when in the presence of someone over the age of 21.

The campaign provides BASC members and the wider shooting community the resources and ability to respond to the consultation and will be updated with BASC’s work fighting against this restriction.

BASC’s director of firearms Bill Harriman said: “We have launched this campaign to raise awareness of what we believe to be an unnecessary and damaging proposal.

“There is no body of evidence to justify removing the exception and if the proposal is successful it will have serious ramifications for the wider shooting community.”

The dedicated campaign page can be found here.

BASC has responded in full to the consultation, raising our objection to this restriction and giving our evidence-based views on the other proposals. Click here to read the full response. 

The consultation ends on 16 February 2021 and BASC is urging its members to spare five minutes to complete the online survey form with their response. For more information and BASC’s recommended answers to the survey, click here.