BASC: Be cautious about cautions

Last minute change to the Scottish General Licence

You may recall that we raised concerns about Scottish General Licences back in August and unfortunately it now seems that our fears have been realized after a last minute change by SNH to their General Licence which are to take effect from 1st January 2014.

Specifically we are concerned that the changes to the licence to include “an enabling paragraph” will be granting civil servants legal powers without evidence of a criminal offence, an approach which is too easily open to abuse.

We are in agreement with BASC regarding the consultation which as with the recent airgun consultation shows that the Scottish Government is more concerned with ticking the consultation box rather than actually going through the process in a manner that would meet even their own documented standards; by allow a minimum of 12 weeks for responses instead of only 6.

We will keep you informed of any developments, for further information please see this update from BASC.

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?

BASC advise on police right to enter and seize firearms

BASC Quarry Identification Guide 2013

Licensing fees, a victory for Northern Ireland

“The long awaited public consultation on proposed changes to firearms law in Northern Ireland took place between 28th June and 20th September 2012. Views were sought on a wide range of proposals including an increase in firearms licencing fees, an age reduction for young shooters, a new banded system for the exchange of firearms, and cutting some of the red tape faced by shooters wishing to visit the province.” (BASC Key Issue)

BASC’s response to the consultation can be found here. Firearms UK, as with BASC are strongly opposed to an increase in firearms licencing fee’s as such we are delighted that an update, published by BASC yesterday highlights that potential fee increases for Northern Ireland licence holders have now been rejected by the Justice Committee.

This update is particular significant since the Association of Chief Police Officers have now published their proposals for significantly raising the licensing fee for firearm and shotgun holders in England, Scotland and Wales. Firearms UK have already been in contact with the ACPO; We have submitted our own recommendations to address the needs for greater efficiency and have outlined our opposition to both the raising of fees and of “full cost recovery”. We encourage you all to follow our Facebook page, where you can discuss the issue of license fees and more.

Supporting BASC’s New Campaign for Mobile Users

Today BASC have launched a new campaign aimed at mobile phone users. The campaign is to encourage people to get in contact with BASC via the website and report any problems they have experienced in accessing shooting related websites on their mobile phones. To tackle this problem BASC is already working with Virgin Media to develop solutions and they are willing to work with other networks as well, but need you to get involved.

Part of the problem is due to age restrictions on the mobile phones, and although these can be changed in a matter of hours, according to BASC, and we agree such a solution is only “treating the symptom and not the cause”. Such a solution also posses a problem for those who may need timely access to information either on the shooting websites or on other websites which may impose similar filtering such as Google Maps, for example whilst travelling.

We ourselves have been discussing a similar issue with a UK airport over its use of URL filter, which regrettably blocked our own website and I have personally been unable to find any information on a particular shooting ground via the Google Maps application on my Android mobile phone. We encourage you all to be on the look out for such problems and report them to BASC and your network provider as discussed on the BASC website.

European Commission’s Firearms Consultation

The European Commission have begun a European wide consultation on tackling firearm related crime, and although it seems to focus on trafficking offenses, the questions are very biased and are of a “what more restrictions can we add” nature. We are concerned that if not countered by a significant number of responses from the shooting community this effort may lead to future legislative actions being aimed at lawful shooters and firearms enthusiasts.

BASC are urging all shooters to take part in the consultation which takes the form of an online questionnaire. More details can be found on their website.

Firearms UK will be responding to the consultation, however we also encourage everyone with an interest in shooting sports and firearms to respond individually. The consultation can be found here

Guide To The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006

White-Fronted Goose Proposals

A recent BASC Key issues publication have warned of another threat to our sporting and hunting rights.

The Welsh Government is consulting on its proposals to ban the shooting of Greenland and European white-fronted geese in Wales. A public consultation on the proposed ban closes on 19th April and such a ban could take effect from 1st September onwards.

BASC are encouraging people to respond against the proposals, full details can be found on their website.