General Election 2015 Candidate Views on Shooting Sports & Firearms Ownership
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General Election 2015 Candidate Views on Shooting Sports & Firearms Ownership Firearms UK is an Association campaigning for the protection of firearms ownership within the UK. Primary objectives are to encourage unity and positive action within the shooting community and to promote and defend individual firearms ownership and the shooting sports. In the lead up to the 2015 General Election we canvased the parliamentary candidates for their views on shooting sports and firearms ownership. We sent an email questionnaire asking seven questions; 1. Do you believe in a total ban on private firearms ownership? 2. Do you believe that private firearms ownership should face greater restrictions? 3. Do you believe the current system is balanced/there is no need for change? 4. Do you support all forms of currently legal shooting in the UK? (If there are exceptions please state) 5. Would you oppose any moves to further restrict private firearms ownership/use in the UK? 6. Do you believe that our firearms laws are in need of reformation and sensible relaxation? 7. If you support UK citizen’s rights to participate in shooting sports do you also support changing the law to permit .22 rimfire pistols to be used for competitive shooting thus allowing ordinary UK citizens to properly train to enable them to compete in international events such as the Olympic and Commonwealth games? We obtained a database of candidate’s details from www.yournextmp.com. The database contained email addresses for 3361 of the 3969 candidates listed. Unfortunately, 183 of these email addresses were incorrect. We managed to correct some of these and sent a follow up email to the candidates. We received 180 “Read Receipts”. Five candidates replied but refused to answer any questions. At the time of publishing we have received 291 responses. The majority of responses were simple “yes”/”no” answers however some respondents wished to expand and clarify their answers in more detail. Some respondents decided not to answer any of the questions but to provide a paragraph or two explaining their views. As they did not answer the specific questions we have had to gauge their level of support of shooting on the response they provided and/or any accompanying documents they provided, e.g. party manifesto or policy. As this is our opinion of their response we may have not fully interpreted they comments correctly. If this is the case we would welcome clarification from the candidate. email: [email protected] Page 1 of 13 www.firearmsuk.org www.facebook.com/firearmsuk.org Version 8 General Election 2015 Candidate Views on Shooting Sports & Firearms Ownership Method of Scoring Scoring has been done using a red, amber, green method. Not supportive, Negative towards, wants further restrictions, “anti”, etc. Undecided, vague response, etc. Supportive, Positive towards, will oppose further restrictions, “pro”, etc. Updates, Errors and Omissions We will update this report as additional responses from candidates come in. If we have misinterpreted a candidate’s response or not recorded it correctly we would welcome candidates providing us with clarification so we can amend the report accordingly. Candidates should contact us at [email protected] Summary As expected the outcome was very mixed. There is a great lack of knowledge as to what shooting sports consist of. Amazingly, probably due to almost constant media misinformation, some believe that automatic firearms are generally available and need further restriction, some thought firearms were “banned” completely and others had no understanding of existing security requirements. Whilst we would not expect candidates to be experts in the subject, a basic idea of what forms of legal shooting is carried out in the UK would be appropriate. A number of respondents asked for more information. We did include a link to our website where they could have investigated further. Unfortunately a lack of resources at the time prevented us responding to all information requests, however we will endeavour to follow these up in due course. Some people responded with comments that they requested not to be made public, we will respect this. All of these comments were positive and “pro” shooting. It is a great shame that they didn’t want to share them publically. It was clear that some candidates thought we were another shooting organisation as they claimed to have previously replied to our “survey”. One person stated they tried to follow the link to our survey but it was “broken”. We did not include a survey link in our email. We did include our name in the introduction paragraph and within the email signature. There was also a link to our website. The majority of responses from SNP candidates were a copy and paste of a pre-prepared statement. The statement focused on Airgun Licensing, which is something we did not specifically ask about, although we do consider Airgun Licensing to have a negative impact of shooting. email: [email protected] Page 2 of 13 www.firearmsuk.org www.facebook.com/firearmsuk.org Version 8 General Election 2015 Candidate Views on Shooting Sports & Firearms Ownership Candidates who answered the questions Name Party Constituency Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question Mike Davies Alliance For Green Socialism Leeds North West Laurence Christian Party "Proclaiming Old Bexley and Sidcup Williams Christ's Lordship" Jeff Green Christian Party "Proclaiming Cardiff North Christ's Lordship" Helen Spiby-Vann Christian Peoples Alliance Hornsey and Wood Green Steve Hakes Christian Peoples Alliance Dewsbury Neil Wilson Conservative and Unionist Belfast East Party Liz St Clair-Legge Conservative and Unionist East Londonderry Party Alexander Conservative Party West Aberdeenshire Burnett and Kincardine Dehenna Davison Conservative Party Kingston upon Hull North Matthew Conservative Party Carshalton and Maxwell Scott Wallington Scott Mann Conservative Party North Cornwall David Nuttall Conservative Party Bury North Edward Conservative Party Inverness, Nairn, Mountain Badenoch and Strathspey Mark Garnier Conservative Party Wyre Forest Huw Bell Conservative Party North East Fife Kelly Tolhurst Conservative Party Rochester and Strood David Mowat Conservative Party Warrington South Edward Garnier Conservative Party Harborough Sarah Cockburn- Conservative Party Burnley Price Eric Ollerenshaw Conservative Party Lancaster and Fleetwood Roger Gale Conservative Party North Thanet Dominic Grieve Conservative Party Beaconsfield Sarah Downes Conservative Party Bassetlaw Simon Reevell Conservative Party Dewsbury David Allen English Democrats Doncaster North Stephen Morris English Democrats Monmouth Eddy Butler English Democrats Harlow Andy Brown Green Party Skipton and Ripon Ben Rice Green Party Carmarthen East and Dinefwr Benjamin Green Party North West Gravestock Leicestershire David Derbyshire Green Party North Somerset Geoffrey Barnes Green Party Gainsborough David Stevens Green Party Bradford East email: [email protected] Page 3 of 13 www.firearmsuk.org www.facebook.com/firearmsuk.org Version 8 General Election 2015 Candidate Views on Shooting Sports & Firearms Ownership Name Party Constituency Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question Tim Dawes Green Party Havant Martin Green Party Morley and Outwood Hemingway Murray Sackwild Green Party Harlow Richard Lawson Green Party Weston-Super-Mare James Doyle Green Party East Worthing and Shoreham Kris Wragg Green Party Bassetlaw Hugh Small Green Party Cities of London and Westminster Will Duckworth Green Party Dudley North Anna Widdup Green Party Epping Forest Derek Wall Green Party Windsor Janet Richards Green Party New Forest West Kevin Warnes Green Party Shipley Sarah Lunnon Green Party Stroud David Aherne Green Party Worthing West Craig Pond Independent Stoke-on-Trent North David James Independent Wirral West Ellie Merton Independent Walthamstow Sandy Pratt Independent East Surrey Paul Howard Independent Eastbourne Nick Yeomans Independent Brighton, Pavilion Matt Taylor Independent Brighton, Kemptown Mike Rigby Independent Taunton Deane Mike Scott- Independent North East Fife Hayward Huw Jones Labour Party South East Cambridgeshire Matthew Labour Party Loughborough O'Callaghan Rob Marris Labour Party Wolverhampton South West Sean Woodcock Labour Party Banbury John Clarke Labour Party Witham Bally Singh Labour Party Kenilworth and Southam David Drew Labour Party Stroud Ken Rustidge Labour Party North East Cambridgeshire Martyn Davis Labour Party Horsham Edward Browne Labour Party Harwich and North Essex George Howarth Labour Party Knowsley Stuart Roden Labour Party Truro and Falmouth Greg Mountain Labour Party Mid Sussex James Wright Labour Party Altrincham and Sale West email: [email protected] Page 4 of 13 www.firearmsuk.org www.facebook.com/firearmsuk.org Version 8 General Election 2015 Candidate Views on Shooting Sports & Firearms Ownership Name Party Constituency Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question Lloyd Russell- Labour Party Lewes Moyle Alan Bullion Liberal Democrats Sevenoaks Alisdair Calder Liberal Democrats Calder Valley McGregor Belinda Brooks- Liberal Democrats Cities of London and Gordon Westminster Brian Mathew Liberal Democrats North Wiltshire Elaine Bagshaw Liberal Democrats Poplar and Limehouse James Barber Liberal Democrats Dulwich and West Norwood Michael Beckett Liberal Democrats Scarborough and Whitby David Newman Liberal