There has been a lot of reporting of the new Home Office Guidance to the Police in the shooting press, which has focussed on how favourable it is to the shooting community overall. Thanks are due to the shooting organisations that contributed to the consultation and co-operation that took place to compile the guidance. It is to be hoped that there will indeed be a new culture of co-operation between the shooting community and the Police.
There are still elements in the Guidance, and in the law generally which can trip up the unwary. You never could rely on common sense when it came to post 1997 firearms laws, and there are a number of areas which ought to be highlighted again and again, because they will continue to cause confusion and, therefore, convictions.
