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The proposed lead ban appears to be having an effect allready with shotguns being dumped into auction houses and people considering not re newing tickets .
in my mind its achieving its real target allready ..

Blackstuff wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 8:00 am

Airbrush wrote: ↑Wed Jan 11, 2023 11:16 am Ah yes, public consultations, box ticking exercises for decisions already made.

Almost certainly true, but still no excuse not to spend 5 minutes filling it in.

2800 responses has delayed them for 6 months. What would 28,000, 280,000, 2,800,000 done? I suspect the latter two would have had them crippled rather quickly and just given it up as a bad idea.

Absolutely true - what a pathetic response from shooters, and another totally inadequate response from out shooting associations. A personal email shot to individual members outlining the situation and a guide to suitable responses with a later follow email to remind people to do their bit would have been enough to stop this thing in it's tracks.

1066 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 2:45 pm Absolutely true - what a pathetic response from shooters, and another totally inadequate response from out shooting associations. A personal email shot to individual members outlining the situation and a guide to suitable responses with a later follow email to remind people to do their bit would have been enough to stop this thing in it's tracks.

This was a huge part of the problem, BASCs 11th hour submission was allegedly 180 PAGES long. Could they really not have put out a press release and some bullet points for people to use to fill it in. I single out BASC as its their shooter base that have ushered this in by not complying with the existing lead restrictions (70-80% of shot wetland birds tested were taken with lead shot, not steel as is required by law ), but NRA, BSSC, UKPSA, MLAGB etc etc all have dirty hands as well.

People are generally lazy and just want a quick fix. The consultation document was long , but 6 months is plenty of time to have read it, as noted above there was very little for an average shooter to fill in as a response and a quick google search would throw up guides on which were the relevant sections. But as ever human nature wins the day, the hse put out a document they know the vast majority won’t read and place a couple of tiny hurdles in terms of filling the response and people give up. Such is life.

I am Club Secretary of a small Fullbore rifle Club I asked my members how they had responded to the Consultation they had no idea what I was talkng about.
What is more worrying I am a member of one of the largest shooting Clubs in the North East of England with over 250 members and they have no idea what I am bleating on about.

There are many folk out there who have held FAC's for donkeys years but either a: Don't have a computer, b: If they do, they don't have any truck with social media, c: Don't belong to any forums like this, d: Don't buy niche magazines, e: Don't belong to BSAC or NRA.

Pete

I would expect any self respecting club secretary to have done their duty and made their members aware of the issue and the importance of completing the consultation document.

Seems to me that is where the failures in the chain are.

None of the secretaries of any of the clubs I am in did so sadly. I only knew about it because of this forum and Facebook sadly.... Not the most reliable way to find out about such things.

I wonder how many FAC/Shotgun cert holders don't actually belong to a club? I imagine there must be quite a few in rural areas who use a shotgun or rifle on live quarry...

Pete

I can not speak for other Clubs but I made sure my members were aware of the situation when I mentioned it on one of our range days. Looking at the expressions on there faces I doubt very much they bothered to access the consultation and respond.

(You can lead horses to water but you can not make them drink.)