Attention all MARS & Lever release owners

[Chuck]

If it's any consolation, the "doesn't affect me" mentality isn't just a UK disease..

LIke it or not, IMO you need to get a lobby group on board and start shouting your case from the rooftops. Start taking to task the ignorant journalists who post nonsense about firearms too.

ALL "gun control" measures effectively remove firearms from the law abiding - NEVER criminals and despotic regimes, ever!

[David TS]

Dale Foster, chairman of the IGRF, has asked me if I would post the letter below on his behalf.

He explains that:

The IGRF is a small organisation that oversees the running of international and world championship events in Gallery Rifle, as such I consider we have a voice in this matter as particularly the pistol calibre lever release rifles fall into our area of interest.

To this end I have prepared the attached file that will be sent to all of the MP’s who spoke out against further firearms legislation in the second reading, not sure if they will pay any attention of course, but can’t sit and do nothing!

And the letter is as follows:



International Gallery Rifle Federation
President: Dietmar Honersch  
Chairman: Dale Foster  
General Secretary: Glenn Gordon


Re: Offensive Weapons Bill – Clause 28

Dear Sirs,

I am writing this submission in my role as the current chairman of the International Gallery Rifle
Federation (IGRF), a target shooting organisation comprising Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, South
Africa, Australia and Zimbabwe. I wish to highlight the concerns of the wide community of law abiding
target shooters in Great Britain on some elements of the matters raised in this Bill. Our UK partner
organisation is the National Rifle Association based at Bisley.

1. Summary

1.1 The interest of the IGRF is primarily in target shooting with lower powered, pistol calibre rifles of
which a particular type of firearm, the Southern Gun Company lever release action rifle, is potentially
affected by this proposal, as such the IGRF wishes to offer some information to clarify what this
particular type of firearm is.

1.2 The proposals put forward do not demonstrate any legitimate, verifiable evidence to suggest that
the categories of firearm proposed for prohibition represent any special risk by being held in private
ownership, in fact it is abundantly clear from the findings presented in House of Commons Briefing
Paper CBP7654 2 Aug 2017 that:

1.2.1 “Rifles have remained the least common non-air firearms type accounting for around 1% of
all offences over the period.”

1.2.2 Based upon this document, there appears to be no supporting evidence that any legally
owned so called ‘rapid fire rifles’ or indeed .50 rifles have ever been used in any criminal
offence in the UK.

1.2.3 Handguns, which were banned from private ownership in 1997 comprised some 42% of nonair
firearms offences, suggesting that prohibition does not restrict those who harbour criminal
intent from obtaining such firearms.

1.3 It also appears that the impact assessment document as originally published relates solely to the
VZ58 MARS type rifle and the figure quoted for compensation purposes applies to the number of
that type of rifle in circulation, however, if the Southern Gun Company rifles were to be taken into
consideration this would add a substantial figure to the amount required to be assigned to
compensation. Southern Gun Company has around £4,000,000 of rifles and components in stock
alone, before considering the value of the rifles in private possession.

1.4 Whilst it is understood that there is a process to be followed in relation to the new Bill, I sincerely
hope that certain amendments could be considered to ensure that public safety is maintained without
resorting to an unjustified (and expensive) prohibition that would ultimately not address any
quantifiable risk and would unjustly discriminate against a law abiding section of society.

2. Southern Gun Company Lever Release Action

2.1 This type of firearm was designed and manufactured by Southern Gun Company, a British owned
and operated company who are based in the county of Cornwall. The rifles are built at their
headquarters near the town of Bodmin, with the business providing full time employment for a
number of skilled staff who are residents of the local area. Having consulted with the manufacturer,
there are between 2000 and 3000 of these rifles in existence in the UK.

2.2 The lever release action rifles were first developed in 2008 following consultations that such a design
was legal and did not breach any relevant legislation. In the years since the design came to market
there have been no recorded incidents of any criminal offence being committed or any other misuse
of these rifles.

2.3 A basic variant of the 9mm / .45ACP lever release rifle would cost just under £1600 according to
current Southern Gun Company pricing, however, the rifles are available with a wide variety of
upgrade specifications that the customer can choose from so actual cost can vary to over £2500.
Southern Gun Company also offer a locked breech variant of the lever release rifle in several rifle
calibres, the basic cost of these rifles starts at approximately £3480 and depending on the options
chosen by the customer can end up at around £5000.

2.4 It should be clearly understood that the Southern Gun Company rifles are not and never have been
constructed using major operating components that have been modified from those used in an
existing semi-automatic type design. All of the major operating components are manufactured from
raw material in the UK in compliance with UK legislation.

2.5 The most common variants of these rifles used by UK gallery rifle shooters are in 9mm and .45ACP
calibres. To give an energy context the 9mm typically produces between 450 and 550 joules of
energy at the muzzle of the firearm, the .45 typically produces around 600 joules of muzzle energy
(it should be noted that these figures are with projectiles of a type that can be legally used for the
purposes of target shooting in the UK), compare this to a 12 Bore shotgun firing a cartridge
containing a one ounce shot load which would yield an energy of approximately 1800 joules at the
muzzle.

2.6 The lever release action, in 9mm and .45ACP calibres, uses a ‘blowback’ system whereby the gas
that propels the projectile also acts upon a breech mechanism, pushing it rearwards, the action of
which extracts and ejects the fired case and then the breech locks in the rearwards position. In order
to ready the rifle for the following shot, a lever mechanism requires to be operated by the shooters
thumb allowing the breech to travel forwards thus chambering a fresh round ready for firing. The
action of readying the rifle is independent of the trigger mechanism.

2.7 This type of action has some benefits for those of limited dexterity or other physical disability that
would otherwise restrict their use of a different rifle design. I have personally witnessed this first hand
whereby a member of one of the clubs of which I am also a member has a prosthetic right arm, but,
was able to comfortably shoot a Lever Release rifle in a competition match using his left arm to
operate the rifle whilst using a rest to support the weight of the rifle.

2.8 A number of UK based shooters are planning to use this type of rifle to compete in the 2019 Gallery
Rifle World Championships being held in South Africa in October of next year in the individual Gallery
Rifle Centrefire Open division. This proposed legislation now jeopardises these plans if a prohibition
should ensue.

3. Caledonian Classic Arms VZ58 MARS Rifle

3.1 In regards of the VZ58 MARS (Manually Activated Release System) rifle as directly named in the
original proposals that were published in late 2017, I have no direct first hand experience with this
particular action type other than to know it is manufactured outside of the UK and imported into the
country. I cannot comment whether the same stringent design and manufacturing considerations
that Southern Gun Company have undertaken in respect of their products have been applied in the
production of the VZ58 MARS rifles.

3.2 A fundamental difference in the VZ58 MARS action is that unlike the UK manufactured rifles, it uses
a double pull of the trigger, whereby the first pull closes the action to chamber a cartridge and a
second pull of the trigger fires the rifle.

4. 13,600 Joules Muzzle Energy

4.1 Whilst the item relating to rifles with a muzzle energy in excess of 13,600 Joules does not directly
impinge upon the interests of the majority of the shooters in the field of Gallery Rifle shooting, our
fellow target shooting enthusiasts in the Fifty Calibre Shooters Association UK (FCSA-UK) are well
placed to offer expert advice on this element of the proposals.

5. Bump Stocks

5.1 As to the matter of the items known as ‘bump stocks’ mentioned in Clause 28 (3), we are of the
opinion that these items have absolutely no legitimate use in the sport of target shooting and should
not be imported into the UK.

5.2 It should be clearly noted that a ‘bump stock’ requires to be attached to a semi-automatic firearm
action in order to function in the manner of increasing rate of fire, it has absolutely no effect in
increasing rate of fire upon any other type of firearm.

Thank you for your time in considering this information.

Yours faithfully
Dale Foster
Chairman
International Gallery Rifle Federation
3rd July 2018

[dromia]

Good job!

Except for the bump stock paragraphs, best to say nothing than condemn other firearms, you are just playing the HO divisive game when you do that.

[froggy]

We as a group need to stop trying to justify certain types of firearm. We need to start talking about the fact we as a group are predominantly LAW ABIDING so the kind of firearms we possess are not an issue...as we dont abuse them.

100% Agree - as an outsider observant, it looks to me that most UK shooters are far too discreet borderline hiding... and when it comes to gun control they are in salvage mental mode rather than offensive . In the long term they will not survive that slow erosion process dictated by the anti-gun lobby.

[froggy]

Today is a ban on MARS actions, tomorow it will be straight pull etc ... etc ...
At the same time, the politicians who want to grab your guns are the very same idiots guilty of importing and keeping in the country the very people that commit the vast majority of crimes.
When will a representative body have the courage to denounce this absurdity ?

[Brian838]

Good job!

Except for the bump stock paragraphs, best to say nothing than condemn other firearms, you are just playing the HO divisive game when you do that.

I think the same goes for the VZ58 paragraphs to be fair. "I wish I could say not to ban VZ's, but I can't".
Anyone know when the next bus is due?

[dromia]

Missed that, it gets worse.

[kennyc]

We as a group need to stop trying to justify certain types of firearm. We need to start talking about the fact we as a group are predominantly LAW ABIDING so the kind of firearms we possess are not an issue...as we dont abuse them.

100% Agree - as an outsider observant, it looks to me that most UK shooters are far too discreet borderline hiding... and when it comes to gun control they are in salvage mental mode rather than offensive . In the long term they will not survive that slow erosion process dictated by the anti-gun lobby.

I think that UK shooters are "encouraged" to stay below the Radar by the licencing authorities and the admonishment to "not advertise their possesion of firearms"

[shugie]

Today is a ban on MARS actions, tomorow it will be straight pull etc ... etc ...
At the same time, the politicians who want to grab your guns are the very same idiots guilty of importing and keeping in the country the very people that commit the vast majority of crimes.
When will a representative body have the courage to denounce this absurdity ?

That's British politics for you, if you want them to listen to you, you have to be part of the system, if you are part of the system you have to be careful what you say.

[IainWR]

One very minor point. Bump stocks are already prohibited from being imported, by a change to the Schedules to the Import Regulations a few days after the Las Vegas massacre. The currently proposed change in the law would stop you making your own, and would criminalise possession of any already owned.