BASC is recommending that any decision which affects the ownership of deactivated firearms should be deferred until a report has been received from the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NaBIS).
The NaBIS report will be based on at least 2 years of evidence and should give a proper assessment of the criminal use of deactivated firearms.
BASC believes the process by which firearms are deactivated by the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 has already proved to be successful and this is admitted in the consultation paper.
Bill Harriman, BASC director of firearms, said: "I’m astounded that a well-established public policy of over 20 years standing could suddenly be overturned, and on the flimsiest of evidence. BASC is deeply concerned that this exercise has been undertaken without any serious attempt being made to ascertain the extent of the criminal use of reactivated firearms."
BASC has submitted a ten page response to the Home Office consultation “Controls on Deactivated Firearms” and is now seeking a meeting with the Minister to voice our concerns, once the consultation exercise has ended.
