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Changes To The General Licence


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1 minute ago, dodgy dave said:

what did you think? first time i have seen any body speak up for the shooting man. out side a shooting mag

A good article - and when I read it earlier, the 'Comments' section at the bottom was pretty positive as well, which is good, though the Daily RMail readership is hardly an unbiased sample.

People DO speak out, but they seldom get in print; As I have said before - defending the existing 'status quo' is never 'news'.

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2 minutes ago, countryman said:

I own a few acres of land that I have shot vermin on including wood pigeons, as there is no crop growing on this land does this mean I have no valid reason to shoot Pigeons any more. 

Same here 12 acres but it does have a acre or so of veg garden? 

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1 minute ago, countryman said:

I own a few acres of land that I have shot vermin on including wood pigeons, as there is no crop growing on this land does this mean I have no valid reason to shoot Pigeons any more. 

I don't know - but I don't think you will have any change in that.  The old licence covered such causes as crop damage, conservation, health and safety etc.  NOT sporting, for food, or fun/pleasure.

If you can show (e.g. corvids taking eggs, pigeons taking (even you neighbours) 'crops'), then you should have no issues.  Applying for a licence for a few 'for the pot' I don't think will work, or an afternoon 'target practice' for the game season (!!!) isn't going to work.

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I listened to radio 4 and took from it that Mr Avery is not looking for a ban on shooting vermin just to sort areas of legality in the GL. Thought he some well. Both parties (wj and ca) were disappointed to rep from NE would speak. I don't think it's all doom. Let's wait and see what's released by NE on the 29th 

Edited by Jbob
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5 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

I don't know - but I don't think you will have any change in that.  The old licence covered such causes as crop damage, conservation, health and safety etc.  NOT sporting, for food, or fun/pleasure.

If you can show (e.g. corvids taking eggs, pigeons taking (even you neighbours) 'crops'), then you should have no issues.  Applying for a licence for a few 'for the pot' I don't think will work, or an afternoon 'target practice' for the game season (!!!) isn't going to work.

What a Draconian country we have become.

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13 minutes ago, countryman said:

What a Draconian country we have become.

Nope, you apparently didn't read the GL properly to start with!

It is there for PEST CONTROL under certain specific circumstances. 

It isn't there for Sport or Hunting, there are seasons for that!

 

 

1 hour ago, turbo33 said:

Thanks Dekers.

Would have been helpful if it was BASC that sent this to all the members and not rely on being posted on a shooting forum. Seems we were all able to act faster than they have. Potentially, a high proportion of their members would be unknowingly, be committing a criminal act, with firearms,  if out tomorrow. At the time of writing this, it’s only PW and my friend that made me aware. I’ve not seen it anywhere in the press. So I’m very sure, there will be people out tomorrow that haven’t the slightest idea of the revocation. 

Wild justice would love that, as those would be portrayed as flouting the law. 

I totally agree, I just hope the authorities will take a lenient view in the short term as I'm sure this will impact a number of thoroughly legitimate, decent  and Law abiding shooters.

Edited by Dekers
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5 minutes ago, Dekers said:

Nope, you apparently didn't read the GL properly to start with!

It is there for PEST CONTROL under certain specific circumstances. 

It isn't there for Sport or Hunting, there are seasons for that!

It will be a permanent close season for shooting soon.

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2 minutes ago, countryman said:

It will be a permanent close season for shooting soon.

It already is a close season for shooting, wildlife is protected in this country except in season and under specifically defined circumstances as laid out in the GL.  The GL allows people to take wildlife under very defined circumstances.

We do not have a free for all that allows anyone to shoot any wildlife they fancy for any reason at any time, there needs to be a level of accountability.

I do not deny that many get a sense of satisfaction from this and many will call it Sport, but it is specifically controlled Pest Control.

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Yes, this fiasco has shown just how few people actually understand the terms of the general licence. To be honest, this has just been a very clever ploy by WJ to expose the loophole and NE had no choice but to revoke the licences to protect people from further, unknowingly breaking the law. I am relatively hopeful that new licences will be in place soon that see us back to a similar position as we were. Monday is most likely optimistic as NE have been through a number of draft licences since WJ made their intentions known last month but have not reached a legally sound one yet, but at some stage we will get there imo. New licences will be more specific covering specific species and scenarios, eg wood pigeons causing economic damage to crops

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The GL was exactly that - `General` - and has effectively been used as a vehicle to justify all manner of shooting, even if not actually fully justifiable (with regard to the specifics of the GL).

I'm sure that we have all used it to justify `pest control`, when we have in fact been undertaking sporting shooting and not within scope of the GL.

The fact that so many shooters won't know about it will be balanced out by the number of Police etc who won't know either and/or care. In 30 years of shooting I've never been challenged by anyone quoting the GL, so I hope there won't be a sudden growth of over zealous enforcement.

As has been pointed out, the sad thing is that a lot of shooters don't actually understand the basis of the GL, why it exists and what falls within its scope.

NE have relied too heavily on the catch-all vagueness of it and now we are in this sorry state.

Hopefully we can all jump on-line - enter the relevant information and have separate licenses for each form of pest/vermin control that we undertake. It's a bit of a bind but I have no issue doing that if it protects/justifies what we/I do.

The biggest issue will probably be shooters having to justify what they shoot, as so many of them probably didn't fall under the scope of the old GL anyway.

Interesting times ahead.

Edited by hedge
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4 minutes ago, Scully said:

Me neither! He said yesterday that he’s been beaten up only twice; I find that hard to believe. 😃

His brother is completely different, the sort of guy you would like to chat to, as for Jeremy, well he's a complete ***** so can't be Jewish!

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As a human being I have naturally evolved as a hunter gatherer therefore I believe that, notwithstanding any crop protection or public health issues, it is my natural human right to be able to hunt for food in the countryside and not beholden to the supermarkets.

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