Most, if not all of you, will be aware that there is currently a private online petition called “Do not merge section 1 & 2 regulations on firearms licenses” submitted on the government petitions site that at the time of writing has 62,000 signatures. 

 

Generally we are wary of petitions as they sometimes have limited value, and also we do not yet know what the consultation is going to be asking us, so this could be a little pre-emptive. 

 

You should therefore consider carefully completing, sharing or encouraging others to sign this petition, and we may say the same for any other petition. Supporting it may undermine our credibility when we condemn other petitions as being unrepresentative. We would also add that pursuing a parliamentary debate on alignment may not be wise. 

 

Having said that, this particular petition seems to be gaining a great deal of traction. Looking at various social media feeds then a great deal of the traction seems to be based in a general feeling of frustration from the shooting community and a view that they would rather do something than nothing. Filling in an online petition is a simple matter of a few clicks and is therefore an easy task to complete. Of course the bigger and more complex task will be to get all of our membership to engage with the consultation when it is published. 

 

In the meantime then, and in case you haven’t seen it, the link to the petition can be found here for you to complete or share as you feel appropriate and allowing for the above cautions : https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/750236