The House of Lords has published the latest amendments to the Policing and Crime Bill – including a number of firearms updates.
Baroness Williams, the Conservative peer, has put them forward, meaning they have government support.
They include:
- Implementing the obsolete calibre list for antique firearms, proposed by the Home Office a while ago
- Changes to the bureaucracy around expanding bullets
- Automatic extension of expired certificates for 8 weeks, if police haven’t issued a new one
The changes to expanding ammunition are that instead of the blanket “ban” (which is immediately set aside in practice for live quarry shooters), the ban will now only apply to “ammunition which is designed to be used with a pistol and incorporates a missile designed or adapted to expand on impact”.
Exactly what this fudge will mean in practice is unclear, given that so-called pistol cartridges are widely used in rifles (i.e. carbines). It may be that the expanding ammo “ban” is effectively repealed by this provision.
The government amendments to the bill can be found in this PDF from Parliament. Search for “firearm” to view them.
Labour’s Lord Rosser, a one-time trade union agitator, has also put forward an amendment to legally enshrine full cost recovery, ignoring the fact that this is already in force through the firearms fees system. Another Labour peer, Lord Harris of Haringey – a one-time leader of that borough’s council, notable for claiming £24,000 in expenses in one year alone – has tabled an amendment to automatically revoke the FAC of anyone who has a firearm stolen from them and a lifetime ban on firearm ownership imposed, all without any form of court hearing.
Labour’s politics of spite can be found in this Parliamentary PDF, by the same process described above.
UK Shooting News 
It sems that there might be some good news after all. I still wish to see a redefinition of clubs to say firearm club, instead of rifle and muzzle loading pistol club, so people can legally shoot s1 shotguns, lbrs and lbps on club ticket, rather than those guns being registered and only be able to be shot by those precise people. Also would like to see the whole owner/occupier/permission to shoot business all cleared up.
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I see that Labour are again standing up for the ordinary guy with their amendments. Given that almost all shooters aren’t landed gentry, just ordinary working guys, it kind of points to their primary motives … the proles are just cannon fodder … and they are the only ones they want to have the cannons. Communist thinking?
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Was Shirley Williams not an ex Labour MP and one the “Gang of Four” that formed the old SDP?
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Yes ex Labour MP, and gang of four, and if you go back to the late 1960’s or more like the early 1970’s as I recall and look at some of the UK based shooting magazines you would see her advertising a .22 pistol. She used to shoot pistols.
{ It may have been a Vostok Pistol she advertised, will check up and correct if not right}
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Mr Smith – if you have a picture or scan of that I would absolutely love to feature it on here!
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A Labour politician advertising a Russian pistol … anyone else see the connections?
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Gaz,
Just contacted a friend as I was not sure of the pistol it was in fact a “Sako Triace” bit later than I thought in the “Guns Review” 1986- > 1987, I will go to the farm and look for my old magazines in cellar gun room have at least twenty years of them, and forty plus of G&A.
Miss Guns Review so much.
Stuart.
@StuartBenSmith
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Banning FAC holders because they are a victim of a targeted theft is like saying to a bank we revoke your banking licence because you have been robbed. But of course its OK for MP s to leave national security information on trains without getting banned for life from public services sector. Different rules for these people.
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