UK:Jacking up firearms fees 76% will cost SMEs £3.5 MILLION

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UK:Jacking up firearms fees 76% will cost SMEs £3.5 MILLION

(SME means small to medium enterprises)

Firearm certificates which are needed in the UK to possess, buy or acquire a firearm or shotgun (and ammo) will go up 76% according to the article. In addition this will affect dealers, gamekeepers and vets.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/29/firearm_shotgun_fee_hike_1million_pound_cost_business/


"The Home Office has admitted that police plans to force a 76 per cent hike in the cost of a firearm certificate will cost firearms dealers alone £700,000, with gamekeepers and vets being smacked with a further £2.8m in government-imposed fees.

A consultation on the proposed increase in firearms fees, issued earlier this week, reveals the cost to businesses of the police campaign to jack up the fees payable for a firearm or shotgun certificate."

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What is a Firearms Certificate?

"You need a firearms certificate issued by the police to possess, buy or acquire a firearm or shotgun. You must also have a certificate to buy ammunition."

Source: https://www.gov.uk/shotgun-and-firearm-certificates

.
 
£50 for a firearms certificate, £50 for a shotgun certificate.
Most folks pay £60 and get the firearms and shotgun certificate at the same time (they reduce the shotgun certificate fee to £10 if you are also applying for a firearms certificate).

The renewal fee (every five years) is currently £40.

To have a firearms certificate varied costs £26. Shotgun certificates require no variation as you can buy as many shotguns as you want (as long as they can't hold more than 2 cartridges in the magazine or tube). Greater magazine capacity requires the shotgun to go on a firearms certificate.

European Firearms Passes are currently issued without charge.

http://content.met.police.uk/Site/firearmslicensingfees
 
We've had no rises in fees for 13 years and don't pay special taxes for items such as suppressors. Generally I would have to agree with the BASC stance on this:

http://basc.org.uk/blog/press-relea...comes-evidence-based-firearms-fees-proposals/

The proposals are contained in a consultation published today and originated in the work of a Home Office working group which included BASC, the British Shooting Sports Council and the police. The consultation is seeking views in an online survey. Please make your views known via the link below.
The fee for a shotgun renewal would rise to £49, for the grant of a firearm certificate to £88 and for renewal of firearms certificates to £62. Variations on firearms certificates would be reduced to £20. Coterminous certificates, where both shotgun and firearm certificates are dealt with at the same time would be £90 and then £65 on renewal.
Initial police proposals were for a rise in shotgun certificate fees from £50 to £109. BASC rejected this and asked for the component parts of the licensing system to be fully costed and examined in accordance with the principles of better regulation and Treasury guidelines and taking into account the police move to e-commerce for firearms licensing.
Click to expand...
 
This is a federal set up to register all gun owners? We have such a system in Illinois, the Firearms owner ID card is ten dollars for ten years. There are over 1.5 million holders in Illinois as of now.
According to the article there are less than 1800 apps and renewals expected this cycle.
Is there not a lot of interest in the shooting sports in Great Britain. There were almost 150,000 FBI back ground checks in the US for Black Friday sales this year.
 
Is there not a lot of interest in the shooting sports in Great Britain.
Click to expand...

Sadly, not enough interest.
There is a significant portion of the population that thinks if you have an interest in shooting then there is something wrong with you.
We couldn't even get enough signatures on a petition to allow the licensing of .22LR pistols so our Olympic hopefuls can practise in the UK.
 
This is a federal set up to register all gun owners? We have such a system in Illinois, the Firearms owner ID card is ten dollars for ten years. There are over 1.5 million holders in Illinois as of now.
Click to expand...

You have a much better deal than us, for sure. We cannot purchase any sort of weapon for the purposes of self defence anyway.
The only thing we have good is suppressors. I can get a quality .22 suppressor for £80 and a variation fee of £26 (if it isn't on the certificate already).
 
As noted quite a bit of difference on that side of the pond. My last time over there was some years back so I was curious about fees, etc. During my years in uniform on the street down here in south Florida there was a substantial flow of tourists from the UK (thank you Freddie Laker...). They always tried to conceal their reaction on seeing a cop with an openly carried sidearm (little kids would run to their parents and point me out...) since you never saw that sort of thing over there in the early eighties... I imagine that's changed a bit these past ten years.
 
Sunray said:
How do unelected civil servants get to decide what the fees for anything will be?
Click to expand...
Remember that we're talking about the UK, so it would have to be a matter of UK law.

But it isn't impossible for a statute enacted by an elected legislative body to authorize an administrative agency to set fees for certain things. Sometimes such a statute will also set criteria, or standards or require that the agency follow some formal process.

Such is fairly common in the United States. I don't know the details of the applicable UK law; but since it's being done, it's quite possible that is the basis on which it's being done.
 
We Americans are an unruly bunch. Our society is founded on the basic right to
speak your mind and defend home and county with firearms. They try and
Regulate us into submission but all that does is cause us go out
And by more guns. Right after we vote the sobs out of office.
We are unique amount nations. I like it that way.
 
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