10 Oct 2017 – Conservative MP Nick Hurd, Home Office minister for policing, has announced that the government is going to “review the regulation” of air guns in England and Wales.
The review comes after Labour MP Karin Smyth, from Bristol, secured a House of Commons debate calling for something to be done after various ne’er-do-wells misused airguns to shoot toddlers.
As is usual after such horrible events, the families demanded changes in the law.
The Home Office announcement (here) stops short of detail, only mentioning a formal review that will follow later. It does, concerningly, cite the Scottish airgun licensing scheme as a potential model to follow.
“I think that a review of air weapon regulation is important and timely, we will do so against a backdrop of existing controls that are, by all international comparisons, very robust,” Hurd was quoted as saying.
A Home Office guidance leaflet has also been issued (accessible via the link above). This appears to have no legal force as the Home Office Guidance on Firearms Law does, merely offering safety and legal advice.
Unlike Amber Rudd, Nick Hurd’s 15,000 electoral majority is untouchable. His west London seat of Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner is an ultra-safe Conservative area with lots of affluent families.
UK Shooting News 
It was his father, Douglas Hurd who as Home Secretary pushed through the 1988 Firearms (amendment) act after Hungerford that cost us SLRs. Perhaps it’s something genetic.
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If all airguns are made FAC, it should be coupled with the proviso that .22, .32, and .38 target pistols become FAC as well.
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