I was taken aback to realise that it's now over eight years since Dr John Clark set up this website for us.
Since then we've seen many changes; in the club, the sport and the website.

We've had many visitors from all over the world, and it's been invaluable in keeping members up to date with changes. If there was only one tip I'd now give any shooting club, it would be - "Start a website, and update it regularly."

Currently, our site gets around 10,000 visits a year, with an average of 3 pages viewed each visit: not bad for a small shooting club.

MERSEYSIDE POLICE SHOOTERS FORUM AGREEMENT

Merseyside Police shooters forum have been meeting for some time now, and one of the interesting things to come from these meetings has been an agreemnt in the form of a "best practice guidance" document.
This is a form of agreement between the clubs, Registered Firearms Dealers and Merseyside Police - worth reading!

PISTOL PRACTICE FOR THE OLYMPICS ALLOWED IN THE UK

At last an agreement has been reached to allow prospective pistol shooters to train in the UK for the Olympics - See House of Commons Hansard 8th July 2008

This DOES NOT mean that everyone can now apply for permission under Section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968 to become an olympic shooter - but it's another step. There has been a lot of "behind-the-scenes" work done by the shooting organisations just to get this far, and you'll see that the reply in Hansard has been very carefully worded so as not to create a furore amongst those who believe that guns are only used to kill.

Someone in Government thinks we can have small-calibre pistols!

Hansard – Lords Written Answers 17th June 2008
On 17th June in the House of Lords, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office (Lord West of Spithead) gave a written answer to a question about knife and gun crime between 2000 and 2006. No big deal so far.
The figures for firearms offences showed very little change over the years in the number of people proceeded against or found guilty over this period.
For anoraks like me however, the list of Firearms offences was interesting.
For example, if you fail to sign your firearm or shotgun certificate, that counts just as much as selling machine guns, rocket launcers and flame throwers!

In itself this is a little silly, but then I saw other offences listed, fourteen of which related to small calibre pistol clubs!

Now as most ex-pistol shooters know, in 1997 the Conservative government were going to allow .22 pistols to be held and used in special clubs, but the Labour government repealed that, so we lost even that small part of our sport.
It seems that this news has not yet filtered through to the Home Office.

It seems that the laws relating to firearms in this country have now become so complex and confusing that even the new, "fit-for-purpose" Home Office doesn't fully understand them.

In a written answer to a question posed by James Brokenshire MP, The minister of state for Crime and Policing - Tony McNulty replied that it was estimated that there was little risk of legally-held firearms being used in crime, so they had decided NOT to link the computerised firearms licensing system to the National Ballistics Intelligence Service Database.

see Written Answers, Monday, 2nd June 2008

The gun control issue in Canada has recently come to a head with the Mayor of Toronto making it clear that responsible gun-owners are not welcome in his city.

The Canadian Shooting Sports Association (amongst others) has asked the British Shooting Sports Council to circulate the details of their campaign website .

NB: If you decide to e-mail as suggested in the red box at the bottom of the page, you may need to change the commas after each address to semi-colons. (; instead of ,)

SPORTSMAN'S ASSOCIATION (5/8/08)

I was sorry to see that there was no mention of Richard Malbon's death on the SAGBNI website, so I posted something myself; I then read this which might explain things.
Statement by Alan Westlake.

However, since then the SAGBNI bulletin board appears to be locked, with the last official posting in April 2008. We hope that they will be back up and running again soon.

Opportunity to leave legacy for shooting missed say BASC (2/05/08)

The location of shooting events at the 2012 Olympic Games may prove to be a lost opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for the sport according to the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC).

Shooting events for the London Games are to be held at the Royal Artillery Barracks site at Woolwich where roads will be closed to secure a ‘sufficient safety zone’. The choice of venue has been opposed by every shooting organisation in the UK.

A recent report from the Culture, Media and Sport select committee on the Olympic Games in 2012 has also criticised the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) for insisting on using the Woolwich site especially as the layout of the facility means that it will be demolished after the Games, leaving no legacy for the sport.

Senior firearms officer, Mike Eveleigh, said: “We are disappointed that there is now no chance of changing the venue from Woolwich. It is a real shame that it seems there may not be a lasting legacy for shooting sports after the Games. Our sportsmen and women deserve better facilities and BASC will continue to support them as they prepare for the 2012 Games. “

The Olympics again.....and again (2/05/08)

Olympic snub for Met Boss Perhaps if you put this in juxtaposition with Police Shooting It might explain something?

OLYMPIC STANDARD Ba££$up (30/04/08)

The Government have just published their latest report on the Olympic Games preparations in London, and they are scathing about the shooting venue -

"we regard it as highly regrettable that the site chosen for shooting events is not one which commands the support of any of the constituent bodies of British Shooting, and we believe that more should have been done to explore alternative sites before the decision to select the Royal Artillery Barracks was taken. We believe that LOCOG [London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games] should acknowledge that its proposals for shooting events at the 2012 Games offer almost no legacy outcome for the sport. We recommend that LOCOG should work with the shooting bodies to try to extract maximum long-term benefit for the sport and that it should cover the costs of relocating facilities from the Woolwich site to permanent sites for shooting sports."

This is taken from the report "London 2012 Games: the next lap" by the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee, and is only a small part of the criticism - See paragraphs 93 to 96.

WORLD .410 Championship in Wales! (29/04/08)

The World .410 championship will be held at the Mid Wales Shooting Centre on SATURDAY 6th SEPTEMBER 2008.

See the World .410 championship posterfor details

USING MINISTRY OF DEFENCE RANGES IN THE FUTURE (15/04/08)

The NRA have just issued a Press Release in which they explain the new regime all target shooting clubs will have to endure if they wish to continue using Ministry of Defence shooting ranges.

Very broadly, ALL shooters will have to have a certificate, renewed annually, confirming that they have passed a course and that they are safe and competent to shoot on those ranges.
The clubs will have to keep even more records to show that these procedures have been carried out, and these will be subject to audits.
This means that we will have to start training courses in July 2008 so that we can have everyone "certified" by January 2009.

The Daily Mirror gets it wrong - but that's not news... (14/04/08)

The quality of Mirror journalism has not improved it seems - the article Police hand kids gun licences is so full of sensationalism and downright incorrect statements that is gives a fine polish to the words "You don't believe what you read in the papers, do you?" Even if half of it was true, how many people have been killed or injured by youngsters with legally held guns over the last year for example? We all know the answer, but then the facts don't seem to worry the Mirror or the fundamentalist gun-banners.

I'm very sorry to tell you that Richard Malbon of the Sportsman's Association has died unexpectedly. We understand that he had a heart attack on Good Friday.

Pride and Sorrow (07/04/08)

We are both proud and sad to announce that we are at our membership limit, and will no longer be able to accept new full members.
We WILL keep a waiting list however, and this does NOT preclude anyone wishing to apply for probationary membership - you will still be very welcome.

Air raid shelter - or shooting range? (28/2/08)

On Wednesday, 27th February 2008 the Geoffrey Place Range at Mostyn House School had its formal opening.

This is the first shooting range to open in the Wirral area for well over fifty years - and it's been built by PSA in partnership with the school. The range has been constructed in the school air-raid shelter which had been used as an indoor sporting facility for some time, but that came to an end due to poor lighting and seepage, leaving it as a store full of rotting equipment and rubbish for many years.

We have tried to retain and renovate some of the artefacts found when we cleared the shelter, such as signs, lighting accessories and a pump, and we've decorated it in the original style and colours, which we hope this will give some idea of the way the shelter must have looked when it was first built.

Our estimate was that it would take between three and four years to clear and prepare the shelter, and to build the range and clubroom but due to the incredible support, hard work and expertise of the members, we opened in less than two years after the start of work, which was in May 2006.

ACPOS - the Association of Chief Police Officers (Scotland) has - together with the Scottish Police Federation, has called for a review of firearms law.

"A fundamental review of firearms legislation is overdue, making the control of firearms simpler to understand and administer from a public and regulating body perspective. The overarching principle should be the enhancement of public safety whilst ensuring that responsible and legitimate ownership and use of firearms is catered for."

See The Scotsman article which has a series of comments below it - some of which are clearly very angry.
If fact the comment above is fair, and if it were carried through I believe we would benefit, BUT there seems to be a political undertone - to blame Westminster for all Scotland's airgun problems, and the "Ban it brigade" seem to be doing a lot of sabre-rattling - See the comment by Kenny McGaskill - "a total ban on the sale of air weapons was a vital part of his plans for Scotland's future safety."

If the future of Scotland's safety really did depend on the banning of airguns, it would be a very strange country indeed - but thankfully, it's a beautiful country with just the odd rogue politician roaming the hills to spoil it !

We understand that MICK GAULT who won so many medals in the Commonwealth Games for PISTOL shooting has been awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours.

I know everyone (other than the gun control notwork) will be delighted and it is well overdue, but the fact that a PISTOL shooter has been given recognition in such a way is another step forwards for us; a small step in the greater scheme of things, but a step in the right direction. WELL DONE MICK.

(14/12/07)

An item in the Time Educational Supplement of 14th December 2007 was given an anti-gun slant when reporting a presentation by Mary Eveleigh to the all-party group of MPs on the benefits of the shooting sports in schools.

After printing a factual start to the article, the Times went to - of all people - the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) for a quote, which they duly provided, saying such things as:

"There's not a shred of evidence that giving pupils access to guns makes them more responsible citizens. You only have to look at the United States to see how flawed that argument is."

Now I'm sure the LACS - being experts in both the shooting sports and education - would know all about this matter, but sarcasm aside there are two major points here:

• This is an insult to American school children.
• The League are now protecting paper targets and clay pigeons from cruelty.

(29/11/07)

The EU has been rattling on about "gun control" for years, but the school shooting in Finland has changed matters for the worse. see - EU PRESS RELEASE.
The principal point is that the UK government will be forced to raise the age at which people can buy their own guns to 19 from the current 17 years of age.
Exactly how this will make us any safer has yet to be explained - by ANYBODY.
We think it will be about two or three years from now before any action has to be taken.

(10/10/07) The Ash Ranges in Surrey have been closed to target shooting clubs for some years now, and after some negotiation, BASC have ascertained that they will now be re-opening to civilian clubs again.

This is good news!

The Wirral Globe has re-structured it's website, and we are back on their "blogs" area - see The Wirral Globe.

Download your Firearm or Shotgun Certificate application forms
On the BASC Firearms Department "Forms" page at
Certificate application forms & other guidance You'll find all the forms you need to apply for the variation, grant or renewal of your firearm or shotgun certificate, as well as other usefull "stuff" !

Resurrect the Sport
A website dedicated to helping to get the return of the sport of pistol shooting in the UK..... just click on the image.

---