Sim G wrote:What specifically are you referring to and what makes you think that repealing one ammendment automatically envokes restrictions not originally enacted?
Sections 11-14 of the 1997 No.1 Act:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/199 ... ls/enacted
and sections 19-31 of the same:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/199 ... II/enacted
Section 11 makes it an offence punishable with 10 years in jail for having a pistol outside the premises of a licensed pistol club.
Section 12 imposes statutory conditions on FAC holders with pistols (must be pistol club member, target shooting only, only to be stored on club premises). It also allows for extra harsh sentences to be imposed for breaches of conditions.
Section 13 says you must apply for a police permit each and every time you want to take your pistol off the club premises. It seems to be written so as to operate an FAC-within-an-FAC scheme where you must provide good reason to move the pistol off the premises, e.g. for competitions or repair by an RFD. Only "approved" competitions (by Secretary of State, so in practice devolved to police FLDs) constitute "good reason". It seems these permits were intended to operate inside the FAC system so as to disapply the protections of appeals, court review, etc that FACs and SGCs have against unreasonable conditions, and make it more difficult to stage competitions or move pistols around.
Section 14 is just the transitional arrangements for the above to come into force.
Section 19 creates the concepts of "licensed" pistol clubs and "licensed" premises. There is no mention of Home Office Approval for pistol clubs, nor the range approval process we're all familiar with. I'd guess HOA wouldn't apply to pistol clubs and range approval would operate as before.
Section 20 makes it an offence for clubs to allow pistols to be fired on their ranges unless they are held on club members' FACs and the members' certificates/permits are conditioned to allow them to be fired there. Translation: if you want to shoot anywhere but your home range you need to apply for a variation.
Club pistols are allowed and club members without pistols on their tickets can use the club guns, as per rifle clubs.
Section 21 deals with licensing of pistol clubs. In brief, the authorities can restrict the use of the club premises to being a pistol range only (I'm guessing to stop pistol ranges being installed at home or in shared-use buildings such as leisure centres). They can also disapply the "club members can use club guns" provision if they feel like it. Applying for a pistol club licence costs £150.
Section 22 imposes the usual security requirements on pistol club premises - "satisfying the chief officer of police" and so on.
Section 23 allows the secretary of state to put conditions on club licences and makes it an offence not to comply. They include conditions on storage and use.
Section 24 says the pistol club licence lasts for six years, but allows the secretary of state to shorten that by order (in the form of a statutory instrument) whenever he feels like it, thus removing the safeguard of forcing ministers to go to Parliament for approval.
Section 25 allows the SofS to vary a pistol club licence whenever he feels like it. There are no controls, safeguards or consultation measures whatsoever restricting this power.
Section 26 allows for revocation by the SofS. This includes an automatic surrender provision which allow the police to confiscate pistols owned by club members which are stored on the premises if the club licence is revoked. It also permits the police to part-revoke FACs affected by such a revocation. The only provision for getting them back is to go through an application process, including written statements, that is worded widely enough to potentially allow the police to go through what amounts to a fresh FAC grant procedure.
There is a dodgy provision in subsection 5 which states that pistol club members who have pistols at a licensed club after its licence has been revoked (ie. in the time period between revocation and surrendering the pistols) "shall not be guilty of an offence under this or the 1968 Act", which by implication opens the doors for prosecution under any other law that can be made to fit.
Section 27 is an odd one. Subsection 1 seems to me to stipulate that pistol club members without an FAC must be explicitly authorised in writing by the police to handle club guns. Moreover, subsection 4 seems to restrict this to 28 days from the first time they handle a pistol. The rest of the section also states that such members "must be supervised by an officer of the club", which I guess means committee member.
Possible translation: new members must be explicitly police authorised and cannot remain functional non-FAC members (or FAC members without a pistol on ticket) of a pistol club for longer than one month. This seems to be aimed at forcing people to buy pistols (and go through the pistol permit palaver) or be prohibited from coming into contact with them at all. I'm thinking the intent here was to strangle the pipeline of new pistol club members by stopping them from shooting club guns only.
Section 28 imposes an armoury requirement which looks very similar to how military armouries operate. A pistol register must be kept at the club premises with the member's details, details of their pistols, a note of the date they were first stored at the club, a copy of any police permit to move the pistol away from the club, and the date of return, all to be updated within 24 hours of any movement.
Section 29 allows the secretary of state to make regulations (by statutory instrument) on exactly how pistol clubs operate and to create prison sentences for breaches of those regs. Such regs may further restrict new members' access to pistols (see section 27) and how club committees may operate.
Section 30 allows the police (
including PCSOs - it says "civilian officer") to enter a pistol club without a warrant and inspect anything they like at any time.
Section 31 says "thou shalt not tell porkies about any of the above on pain of jail".