Northern Ireland to shelve scheme for compulsory testing.
The Northern Ireland
Officer may have abandoned plans to introduce compulsory testing for
firearms certificate holders after intense lobbying by BASC.
The Northern Ireland Office is near to
completing its review of the current firearms legislation. During
this review the NIO proposed that applicants for a firearms
certificate would in future have to pass a compulsory safety test.
BASC has long expressed the strongest opposition to this proposal and
it now seems the new legislation may not contain a specific reference
to compulsory testing. We may have won this battle but the war is far
from over. The NIO now apparently proposes to include an article
within the new legislation to require an applicant for a firearms
certificate to demonstrate 'competence' which will be determined on
the whim of the Chief Constable.
BASC is fundamentally opposed to this approach as it may well turn out to be a means of introducing compulsory testing by the back-door. The level of competence within the shooting community in Northern Ireland is remarkably high and the police
tell us that the level of accidental misuse of legally held firearms is virtually negligible. It is our view that the current firearms legislation is already unnecessarily restrictive and certainly does not require any additional regulations. Furthermore, we firmly believe that this review provided an ideal opportunity to clarify and simplify current legislation, not to make it more vague. Given the high level of competency which already exists, and the negligible level of misuse of legally held firearms, we feel it is inappropriate to require an applicant for a firearms certificate to have to demonstrate competence. It would certainly discourage newcomers to the sport.
We have taken our arguments directly to the Minister responsible for this matter, Adam Ingram, Minister of State for Northern Ireland, and we hope to meet with him shortly. We have also co-ordinated our efforts with a range of other like-minded bodies such as Ulster Farmers Union, Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers Association, Countryside Alliance and the Gun Trade Association for Northern Ireland. Shortly we will jointly write to a number of Westminster MPs as firearms is still a reserved matter. You can help by writing to, or going to see your local MP and voicing your views on this proposal. Please do it now. The new draft firearms legislation is due to be published for public consultation early in 2001.