Tim Bonner: Is the government trying to price out gunowners?

As I wrote in Shooting Times in November my gun cabinet is quite full. In no particular order there is my great grandmother’s Cogswell and Harrison 16 bore, my grandfather’s Westley Richards 12 bore, a ‘composed pair’ of AYA No 4 12 bores, a Winchester SX3 semi-auto 12 bore, a Baikal single barrel 20 bore, a Lincoln over and under 20 bore and a Beretta 486 20 bore. Each has, or has had, a particular purpose, whether rough shooting, game shooting, wildfowling, clays or introducing children to shooting. I have a feeling that most Shooting Times readers would not think that there was anything excessive about the fact that I own eight guns.

When I talk to non-shooting politicians, however, I am very aware that many would be quite shocked by the idea that anyone would own that many guns. The difference in attitudes to gun ownership is stark. Many of us live a life in which it is perfectly normal and nearly everyone we know has a shotgun certificate and possibly a section one firearms licence as well. Most MPs, however, will not know anyone who owns a gun and the whole concept is completely alien to them.

That is the background to what looks likely to become the most fundamental political debate on firearms licensing since 1996. As I predicted in November the government is coming for shotguns. Last week it fired the starting gun on that debate by saying that it will consult on “aligning the controls on shotguns with other firearms”. This is a proposal that has long been championed by gun control campaigners and their supporters in the Labour Party.

The thrust of the policy is to license shotguns in the same way as rifles and other guns currently dealt with under Section 1 of the Firearms Act. In practical terms this would mean that an applicant would have to justify the ownership of each shotgun, each would have to be licensed separately, the purchase and holding of ammunition would be limited and there may be additional restrictions around the storage of shotguns.

On top of the big hike in licence fees the government has already announced this is clearly a policy that would reduce gun ownership by making it restrictive, expensive and bureaucratic, which is why it has the support of anti-gun activists.

The fact that this significant and unjustified burden on legitimate gun owners would have a huge impact on a sector that contributes £3.3 billion to the economy and supports tens of thousands of jobs - many of them in the most marginal areas of the countryside - is apparently irrelevant.

The policy is, in large part, driven by reaction to the horrific killings in Keysham in 2021, although calls for shotguns to be licensed under Section 1 long pre-date that. However, as anyone who has looked at that awful case objectively knows, the police’s failings were so appalling that the licensing system was largely irrelevant.

Those of us who own guns are, almost without exception, committed to robust licensing as we are the last people who want guns in the hands of those who cannot be trusted to use them responsibly. We accept that gun ownership in the UK is a responsibility, not a right. That is why the Countryside Alliance and our partner organisations have always worked with the government on issues like medical checks and mental health to improve the system. These new proposals, however, are draconian and unreasonable.

They also create a whole new challenge in the relationship between the Labour government and the countryside. I have warned of the threat to shotguns for some time, in fact I wrote 12 months ago when the party was still in opposition that “significant voices within Labour continue to push for fundamental changes to the licensing system and in particular the requirement for shotguns to be classified as Section 1 firearms” and repeated that warning here after Labour were elected. Even I am surprised, however, that the government is willing to embark upon another fight with the countryside even whilst the row over inheritance tax and family farms rumbles on. Matthew Parris wrote in the Times earlier this month about Labour’s manifesto commitment to ban trail hunting: “I don’t believe this government hates the countryside but I wish it would stop appearing to”. However much ministers deny it, many people will see this new attack on gun ownership as part of a wider anti-rural agenda.

This article first appeared in Shooting Times and Country Magazine.