The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

No doubt the government will have learnt from the handgun ban and the "compensation" will this time be frugal in comparison.

Regardless of the amounts paid at the time I still do not in any way feel compensated for the loss of my ability to own and shoot section 1 handguns.

I think the compensation level is fairly irrelevant to the government, it's very much small change, hardly enough to clean out a moat or build a duck house. If it works out a 5k a head it's peanuts for the very small numbers involved when you think there's £40 million every single day being flushed down the foreign aid pan or £640 million a year the NHS spend on management consultants.


I think they will pay a little over the odds to buy a quiet life and let the whole nasty business slip away into the background.

Has anyone had or heard anything formal from anyone on this?

I ask as I find it amazing that those of us with MARS rifles now own a 'prohbitied firearm', however nothing formal has been sent to us to inform us what we can and cannot do. If someone were not aware of what has happened, say they don't use the forums and/or web etc., then how would they know?

Unless I've been left off the mailing list...

When the compensation mechanism has been finalised, you’ll be informed, don’t worry about that....

How was information about the handgun ban spread? Did people just get their info from the news or did FLD's send out letters or what?

Blackstuff wrote:How was information about the handgun ban spread? Did people just get their info from the news or did FLD's send out letters or what?

All affected FAC holders were sent information via their local firearms departments. They obviously did a search of their files to establish who actually owned pistols.

There is a closed Facebook group - Lever Release & MARS Owners Club, aimed at those impacted by the Offensive Weapons Act. People share knowledge and information l, including that coming from the authorities. Based on posts within that Group:

At least one police force has granted a variation for a lever release rifle after the Act took effect;

A number of FEOs were unaware of the Act, and it’s impact

At least one RFD has sold a lever release well after the Bill was published, but prior to Royal Assent. Remembering that to qualify for compensation you needed to have been in lawful possession, or entered into a contract to purchase, on 20th June 2018. One RFD completed a sale just prior to Royal Arendt. The purchaser was unaware of the Bill. The RFD when subsequently challenged apparently said, “ Your problem, not mine”.

In summary associated communications are a mess.

Ceri

Cj10 wrote: One RFD completed a sale just prior to Royal Arendt. The purchaser was unaware of the Bill. The RFD when subsequently challenged apparently said, “ Your problem, not mine”.

Ouch. I would say with stuff like that getting out about the RFD in question, surely it would affect sales... but then if that were true people wouldn't be buying things which are widely talked about in shooting circles that are on the way out. Shame for the person buying, a reminder to always do your homework before buying though.

For what’s it worth ... I heard yesterday that the delay relates to a serious miscalculation on the amount of compensation required to progress the current form of the bill. Home Office are not happy with the Police as a result. Basically, the initial compensation projection was based on the rifle cals not the pistol cals. Therefore underestimating the cost by circa half! This has lead to an internal discussion (evaluation/scenario) on focusing the ban on rifle cals only (for now!). But of course this cannot be confirmed

Half? Surely there are way more lever release than Mars out there and aren’t the LR just as expensive?