22 Pistol E-Petition

[wymberley]

Pleasantly surprised today to find that my local MP, Hugo Swire, did exactly what he said he would. In response to my request he has forwarded his reply from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to whom he referred my question.

 

Current government policy is now stated on the largely defunct petition in response to the fact that it exceeded the 10.000 signature threshold.

 

Extracts from Sajid Javid's reply:

Currently 66,100 people take part in shooting regularly this is an increase of 5.700 in the last year and 7,900 since 2005.

The majority of people who shoot with British Shooting use the UK spec Free Pistol (Long Arm). These are all .22 calibre and are held on Section 1 Firearms Certificates.

British Shooting has a very limited number (max 25) of shooters who hold pistols on a Section 5 authority from the Home Office. This number of shooters has to include the chosen competitors in the men's and women's 25m Olympic disciplines and the men's and women's 25m Paralympic disciplines. These pistols are also all in .22 calibre.

Sport England is investing £1million to get more people shooting of which £220,000 is to support athletes on British Shooting's talent development programmes. This investment will ensure that a talent pathway is in place to identify and nurture young people with the potential to compete at the highest level, such as the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and Commonwealth Games.

 

I make no comment on the reply, but would suggest that unless there's a dramatic increase in interest in the petition in its remaining timescale, then that's our lot.

[aris]

Perhaps rather than a change in the law, what is needed is a relaxation of the Section 5 qualifications to allow more competitive pistol shooters.

[wymberley]

Perhaps rather than a change in the law, what is needed is a relaxation of the Section 5 qualifications to allow more competitive pistol shooters.

Good point. If one was a cynic, in view of the lack of interest shown in the petition by the sports governing body, one could surmise that what they have at the moment is what they consider acceptable having done a deal.

[aris]

I think you need people with a bit more visibility and clout making a point of the lack of opportunity in this Olympic sport.

[wymberley]

I think you need people with a bit more visibility and clout making a point of the lack of opportunity in this Olympic sport.

There is enough of us to do just that but out of the 1/2 million, or whatever the figure is, of us only some 16,000 were sufficiently interested. The 100,000 signatures is enough to get Parliaments attention, not to mention that of the media. Once the ball is rolling the "visibility and clout" will jump on board - probably for their own benefit/publicity but who cares. However, the question remains, where are the 66,100 whose sport it is, or are they all content with the current situation? If they're not fussed, why should we be?

[Steppenwolf]

I have personally advertised this petition on all shooting forums so if more people won't sign it it's probably their apathy since I think I have seen the petition on nearly enough every shooting website or forum.

The way I see it this could be a yearly thing petition, since each year it seems we have got more peopel interested, eventually one year we will break that 100000 person barrier, don't give up people!

[demonwolf444]

From my knowledge MANY ( ie not just one ) organisations refuse to support the petitions, for fear or jepodising their own ambitions for lobbying ( perhaps ahem... i dont know.. increasing the number of people who could be exempt as apposed to tackling the law its self. ) They already have their own much smaller ambitions and perhaps do not want to appear radical.

 

To me this shows, and i would accuse them of an clear neglect of the communities they are supposed to be representing. The problem with the status quo is that all the funding in the world will not make pistol shooting any more accessible to joe blogs who could try pistol shooting as a new disclipine at his local range and discover he has a serious love and talent for the job. As unlikely as it sounds thats how champions are made; they find something they like, they work hard at it, expend time and money and they win.

 

Furthermore for the guntrade industry there is a whole revenue stream that is not being tapped into because the sports banned. Aswell as ranges, and clubs benefiting in that the requirements for a pistol range are going to be much less than for a full bore range, new diciplines, custom gunsmiths, ammo sales, pistol sales, competition, influx of people into the sport. more accessible sport. easier route for competative shooters.

[BattleFieldRelics]

Sajid Javid

[BattleFieldRelics]

He speaks for the majority:

 

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid achieved a vote of 30.8% of the electorate in his constituency of Bromsgrove in 2010.