Dear GTA Member
With our full support, colleagues at BASC are presently briefing MPs who plan to speak during the Westminster Hall debate on Home Office proposals to merge Section 2 shotguns with Section 1 firearms.
While the debate, tabled in response to an online petition, will not have any direct impact on Government policy, it offers an opportunity for the gun trade to make its voice heard loud and clear.
As a GTA member, you can therefore play an important role by contacting your local MP and urging them to attend the debate.
If you receive a response from your MP, please forward it to [email protected]so our team can monitor engagement and provide further support where needed.
You can find out who your MP is and how to contact them here: https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons
It may also be helpful to inform your MP how many people in his/her constituency signed the petition. You can find constituency-level petition data here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/750236
WHAT SHOULD I WRITE?
The GTA has developed an official position on the S1&2 issue (below). You should feel free to rehearse any or all of our statement in your correspondence with your MP:
“The UK has an outstanding record of public safety when it comes to the ownership of legally held firearms. Realignment of Sections 1 & 2 of the Firearms Act 1968 on the grounds of public safety is simply not justified by current data on legal gun ownership.
Overall, gun crime at March 2025 represents 0.1% of all crime in England and Wales. Against a national backdrop of falling gun crime over the past six years, licensed shotgun holders account for a vanishingly small proportion. This is in the region of 0.00006% of all recorded crime in England and Wales. This is far too tiny to be recorded as a separate category by the Office of National Statistics.
In re-aligning shotguns with rifles, this ill-judged re-alignment will:
- cost the gun trade, shooting, the Exchequer and wider UK economy in the region of £2.38 billion and in effect, destroy the sector.
- overwhelm already struggling police firearms licensing departments.
- endanger public safety by driving failures in police licensing, as tragically demonstrated in the Plymouth shooting of 2021.
These proposals are the wrong answer to the wrong question at the wrong time. The Home Office needs to create a new National Police Firearms Licensing Authority, supported by a renewed National Firearms Licensing Management System, as part of its introduction of a National Police Service in 2034.
Existing controls on legally owned firearms are robust and working. The police firearms licensing system is broken and in need of urgent reform”.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
STEPHEN JOLLY
CEO, Gun Trade Association
