Steyr LP50s banned in the UK

Sparks

A cautionary tale on how not to lobby received by email today:

Dear Sir/ Madam.


Can I ask the NSRA opinion on this subject .


The GTA and AMTA and Mr Terry Doe,have had a discussion with the home office to get clarification on Semi Automatic sub 12Ft/Lbs .


While we all knew by the letter if the law they are illegal, but HO and CPS guidelines were clear that these air weapons were not supposed to be taken into account when the law changed .


As long as they were under 12 and under 6Ft/Lbs now action would be taken against any one who owned them.


Now the above have forced the hand of the Home Office and put a blanket ban on all semi automatic rifled air guns .


All air guns no exception.


Rifles and air pistols included in all air guns, there is NO distinction between the two.
I have three Steyr LP50 semi automatic air pistols for Olympic target shooting, costing £1500 each.


Am I now looking at a long custodial sentence , indeed are the many hundreds possibly a thousand or more Semi Auto pistol owners now criminals, just because GTA and AMTA were over the top demanding clarification on the law governing Semi Auto air weapons .


I asked my local fire arms officer about , he said he would make enquires for me three hours later he got back to me , saying the law make makes no distinction between the air rifle and pistol , he said now that both by the letter of the law are illegal.


Yours faithfully.

A lot of very annoyed people are not happy about this in the UK at the moment, but mainly they're not happy at someone on "our side" creating a problem where one did not exist.

Might be something for everyone over on this side of the water who lobbies our Powers That Be to pay heed to...

Cass

Sparks could you break some things down for the uninitiated?

1. Are these banned in the UK, but thought not to be?
2. When you say "our side" of the water exactly who done what?
3. The GTA are the Gun trader Association according to their logo. Did they provoke the issue by seeking clarification or did they cause the issue? (much like the 20" barrel issue hear and someone taking a court action to finalise the matter?

Sparks

1. They were banned (in 1988 if I remember right) because the legislation made no specific exemption for semi-automatic air rifles, but it was similar to how we accidentally banned paintball here in that it wasn't explicitly intended, the legislators were looking at other firearms in the wake of Hungerford and didn't have the technical expertise to spot the problem*; and like here, they'd been ignoring the problem for some time.

2. "our side" meaning shooters as opposed to legislators; I didn't mean some Irish group.

3. From what I can see, someone went "they allow semi-auto air rifles, if we get them to say that's the case then we can use that to make them allow all semi-auto rifles too". And it backfired in a way predictable to almost anyone.


The lesson to take (amongst others) that I thought was relevant was "if you point out an exception in an attempt to change a ban, it's usually easier for the PTB to just extend the ban"...



* That's not the only problem with what they did back then, but that's another thread.

Cass

You could say that if they kept their mouth shut it would have been fine, but everyone in possession of the guns would still be breaking the law. However, and speaking as less than a novice to the subject, it seems the GTA were selling these guns happy in the fact they were legal, and then "rocked the boat" and by doing so shot themselves in the foot.

There is also some mention in those threads about meetings that were meant to take place that did not, and things said that were either not said or not disclosed.

Seems overly familiar alright.