Dear WRPC Members,
On 1st March 2023, the Government published its proposed Firearms Bill which is to be known as the Firearms Act 2023. The Bill has already had a Second Reading in the House of Commons and is currently in the Committee Stage where amendments will be tabled by elected Members. This will happen for the first time on 15th March 2023.
This law is primarily aimed at operators of miniature ranges and those that illegally reload ammunition. It performs the latter by making it an offence to possess primers, cases, powder or bullet heads whilst having an intent to reload, with a five-year prison sentence as punishment. Unfortunately the draft wording means that law abiding shooters that reload could find themselves as being accused of being criminals through no fault of their own.
Under the draft wording, if the Police/CPS consider you have shown intent to reload more ammunition than you are limited to on your Firearms Licence, you could be charged with breaking the law. Effectively, holding reloading supplies in greater numbers than your maximum allowed ammunition limit could be found illegal. For example, should you have a calibre limit of 250 rounds, have 150 rounds in your cabinet and buy a box of 500 bullets – you could be found to have the intent to produce and hold 650 rounds which would be illegal.
It is therefore imperative that we ask our elected representatives to clarify or amend this proposed law as soon as possible.
We would ask all our members lobby your elected MP as soon as you can and to assist, we have produced four attached letter templates for you to fill in and send.
You can find your local MP and how to address them at the Parliament website, the letters have been attached to our emails and uploaded to the website in the Members Area Essential Forms section.
Thank you for your help in protecting your shooting rights.
Yours
The WRPC Management Committee