Merging Section 2 with Section 1 – BASC guide to writing to your MP

The Home Office is due to publish a consultation on merging Section 2 (shotguns) and Section 1 (rifles) for the purposes of firearms licensing.

BASC is strongly opposed to any plan to make shotguns subject to Section 1 restrictions. We are calling on all those involved in shooting to write to their MP about this proposal. We believe there is no evidence to support such a move and have already taken action to persuade politicians against it.

How to identify your MP

 When the consultation is released, BASC will publish a guide to help everyone to respond. In the meantime, here are tips and resources for writing to your MP.

Identify your MP. Enter your postcode into this parliamentary constituency locator; your MP will come up. Click twice on their photograph for their contact details for post and email.

Write your letter. The more you can compose the letter in your own words, the better. Template letters that are all the same are noted but often discounted. Below is a list of points that you can mention in your own words – you don’t have to use them all.

Tips for writing your letter

  • The Home Office claims that merging shotgun and rifle licensing will improve public safety, but the evidence simply doesn’t support this. Fatalities involving legally held guns are already extraordinarily rare – around 1 in 15 million annually. This figure is far below the Health and Safety Executive’s intervention threshold of 1 in a million. And because the public safety test is already identical for Section 1 and Section 2 firearms, combining the systems delivers no new safety benefit – only more bureaucracy.
  • The consultation proposal says that shotguns are as lethal as rifles, but the difference is the range. A shotgun may be lethal up to 40 metres, but a rifle can be lethal at over a mile.
  • Since controls on firearms were introduced in 1920, Parliament has always distinguished between shotguns and rifles, not only because they’re as different as bicycles and motorbikes, but because shotguns in rural areas are often a ‘tool of the job’, plus widely used for recreation such as clay shooting, wildfowling and game shooting.

An extra burden on police

  • The proposal mentions the 2021 killings at Plymouth Keyham because the perpetrator used a shotgun. However, the inquest found the fault lay with the police and their licensing department, which was “a dangerous shambles”.  Untrained staff were unable to use their own risk matrix. They classified Jake Davison as low risk, when he was actually high risk.
  • Merging Section 2 and Section 1 will place a potentially unsupportable burden on police firearms licensing departments. Many already fail to give an efficient service, with a quarter taking more than a year to process grant applications. The additional tests and checks required by Section 1 could break an already fragile system.
  • The Labour Government wants to encourage economic growth. Merging the two sections will unnecessarily increase the hurdles to obtaining a certificate. Based on past experience, this is likely to drive people out of shooting. This will, in turn, impact the rural economy and jobs. One estimate says that in the first year, the economy will lose more than £1 billion and 20,000 jobs.
  • Labour holds 136 rural and semi-rural seats, which are critical to forming a government. This unnecessary attack on shooting will further erode support for Labour in these constituencies.

Ask your MP to take action

If you are represented by a Labour MP, ask them to speak to the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and the Policing Minister Sarah Jones. They can also talk to the Whips. They should say that they/their constituents are very unhappy about this attack on shooting with no benefit to public safety. They can use whatever arguments you’ve chosen for the body of your letter.

If they’re from any other party, they should speak in similar terms to their Home Affairs party spokesman. They can also table written questions on the subject, asking for facts and figures and write to the Home Secretary.

You can include an invitation for your MP to come and see your shoot, club, permission or clay ground. In our experience, the quickest way to get an MP onside is to give them a practical experience.

Please copy any reply you receive to politics@basc.org.uk.

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