Supporting Sports4All

The shooting community as a whole and perhaps especially the target shooters amongst us are no stranger to one of shootings many benefits, that being how inclusive the shooting sports are.

It has been highlighted rather brilliantly with our recent guest article that sporting shooting, indeed any form of shooting can and does appeal to all and is very much inclusive to those who perhaps would be overlooked or at a competitive disadvantage in other sports.

With this in mind, we are pleased to let you all know that we have begun to build a relationship with Sports4All, an organization focused on sports that are truly open to everyone, of which shooting is very much a part.

Please give them your support in appreciate for this positive relationship.

Proposals for Licensing Air Weapons in Scotland: An Analysis of Consultation Responses

Countryside Alliance Survey

The Countryside Alliance is asking people to complete an online survey. This survey asks your thoughts about the Countryside Alliance and their work, why you are (or are not) a member, the other rural interest bodies you support, how you hear from us, your concerns for the countryside’s future and what you believe their priorities should be.

There are questions relating to “serious threats to shooting”, if you believe that the Countryside Alliance is effective at protecting shooting and if they should focus more on shooting.

It would be great if you could include “Firearms UK” in the “What other organisations are you a member of?” question – thanks!

https://researchinteractive.opinioninsight.com/survey/?ID=3

British Airways Lounges

In March of this year, Sean (one of our Admin Team) found that British Airways was blocking access to our website (https://firearmsuk.wordpress.com) from the PCs provided in their lounges. The reason stated by the filtering system was “British Airways blocks access to certain Internet sites which may be considered to be illegal or offensive. This site is currently on the barred list.”

Taking exception to being considered as an administrator of an “illegal or offensive” website Sean contacted British Airways, the response he received was as follows;

Thank you for your email dated 18 March 2013. I am sorry to learn that you were unable to access a website in the lounge at Aberdeen airport. I can understand how disappointing this must have been for you. Please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused to you.

I would like to inform you that many BA lounges have PCs that are available for customers to use and access the Internet. In order to protect the PCs and users a number of security measures are installed. This includes URL blocking or website filtering. The aim of this is to prevent access to sites that may host computer viruses or be generally viewed as objectionable.

Your feedback is a meaningful indicator of how our valued customers are feeling and I have passed on a copy of your email to our Customer Experience team for review. Some issues are easy to fix quickly, and some may take a little more time to put right. We want to iron out the difficulties, and our Chief Executive expects us to make continuous improvements across all areas of our business for our customers.”

Needless to say Sean got straight back on to them advising them that all that is required is to remove the URL from the barred list. The reply he got back was;

“Thank you for coming back to us. I am sorry that you are unhappy with our response. I understand that you feel that we did not take your complaint seriously enough.

As explained to you earlier, a number of security measures are installed so that the PCs and users are protected. This also includes URL blocking or website filtering.

I would like to reassure you that your views do matter to us, and as you fly with us a great deal, we particularly value your insights. Your views have been recorded and will be considered, together with all the other issues raised by our customers, at a cross-departmental group. Their aim is to listen to the customer, find out where problems are reoccurring, and put plans into place to solve them. Some issues can be easily fixed, but others may take a little more time to put right.

As well as taking account of feedback from individuals, we do invite small groups of customers to meet our senior managers from time to time. This allows our customers to ask questions and discuss the things that really matter to them. We also use an independent research company to get our customers’ views, and the results of this are reviewed across the business each month.

Thank you for following this up with us and I hope we can welcome you on board again soon.

As BASC were running a campaign to get mobile phone operators to stop blocking access to perfectly legal shooting related sites, Sean contacted them to see if they could put some additional pressure on British Airways.

Conor O’Gorman immediately contacted the British Airways Chief Executive’s Office. After several weeks of emails back and forth, British Airways eventually came back saying, in summary, that they have tested a range of BA lounges including Aberdeen and found that access to shooting websites was available on WiFi via private devices but not in some cases on BA provided desktop PCs. Sub-contracting is involved for the BA provided desktop PCs and they don’t wish to alter anything there as with the WiFi availability they feel that adequate access is provided.

So, British Airways is prepared to censor web content that is perfectly legal and non-offensive, and even worse not remove the blocks when advised that their systems have got the classification incorrect. Surely the reason the PCs are made available in the lounge is for those passengers not travelling with a WiFi enabled device?

Will Sean be flying with British Airways again? Well yes to use up his Avios points, but after that perhaps Richard Branson would like his business?

Airsoft Shooter

No to Airgun Licencing, England & Wales

Bellow you will find an example of a letter you can send to your MP. The aim of the letter is to register your opposition to the licencing of Airguns, both in Scotland and in England and Wales. Crucially you can also use such a letter to request your MP to support lawful airgun owners, and to not support any proposals to introduce similar legislative changes as that suggested by the Scottish government for England and Wales.

To find out who your local MP is we recommend the use of a website called “WriteToThem”. On the website you simply enter in your postcode and it’ll provide you with details of your MP and offer a “letter mailing service”.

Dear Sir or Madam

I write to register my increasing concern with you over the events that have been taking place in Scotland over the issue of airgun licencing. Despite crime involving airguns being statistically insignificant the Scottish government are transfixed on forcing unnecessary and ill thought out restrictions against strong opposition, including a petition signed by over fourteen thousand.

My concerns are that regardless of the eventual outcome for Scottish airgunners, the proposals alone by the Scottish government will incite equally unfounded calls for similar measures to be applied in England and Wales. Airgun owners, as with legal firearms owners are overwhelmingly safe, responsible and law abiding people who just wish to pursue their hobbies or sport without needless bureaucracy and expense, which inevitably has a disproportionate impact on newcomers to the sport and those on a lower income.

I would ask that you do what you can to ensure your law abiding constituents don’t have to face similar discriminatory encroachments. Existing legislation is more than adequate to cater for any incidents of airgun misuse, as such I hope you agree that such proposals are not necessary and are a waste of resources, which can be better spent on genuine threats to public safety.

Yours sincerely,

Scotland’s A9

Shooting, the Accessible Sport

Inspired by an earlier piece by Firearms UK on the inclusivity of shooting Tom MacKintosh, a supporter of Firearms UK has kindly produced a guest article for us on this subject.

Introducing D.Camo Designs

We at Firearms UK are keen to support firearms owners, shooters and their industries in anyway we can, so we are thrilled to be able to offer you an introduction to an up and coming shooting related business.

Darren showing a before and after example

D.Camo is a custom painting service for air-rifles, crossbows etc. We spray for air-soft, paint-balling, fishing gear. So if your hunting or just playing why not blend in with a D.Camo custom spray job.

The following introduction is provided by Darren Smith, the founder of D.Camo Designs.

This all started out as a personal interest just for myself about 4 years ago. I started spraying my air rifle, it took a few attempts to get the patterns i was interested in when going shooting and I used many different sprays to get the effect I wanted.

My air rifle brought me a lot of interest and I was advised to take it to some gun shows, but instead I popped along to some of my local gun shops; just to see what interest there was. I was amazed with the feed back, so from then on I started spraying some stocks in different designs to promote my work.

Having set up the Facebook group, interest in my work grew, and more and more people would join each day. I have now setup my own business account on Facebook; d.camodesigns to further develop D.Camo Designs into a viable business.

I have greatly enjoyed spraying over the years and I hope to make something of my self which is connected to my shooting hobby.

Some examples from D.Camo Designs

Darren is Based in Bristol, he has a Facebook page and Facebook group already established with a website soon to follow. You can reach him via e-mail or phone on 07827 677618.

Clay Target Shooter