New deactivation law

As if the current deactivation laws weren’t onerous enough, turning any historical weapon into a large paperweight, the beaurocrats in the EU have gone one step further. While everyone else was watching the Brexit fiasco, the Government slipped through a new regulation called the Firearms Regulations 2019 on 31 October, with it coming into effect on 12 December this year. The new regulation states that anyone selling or giving away a deactivated firearm will be committing an offence if they do not inform the appropriate national authority, either by registered post or email, of the details of the new owner. As well as that, if the firearm was made before 14 September 2018 they must also include details of the make, calibre, brand, country of manufacture and serial number of the weapon. If the weapon was made after 14 September 2018 the details needed include all of those listed plus the unique marking affixed to each component part, excluding the magazine.

And if you thought that was bad enough, here’s the real sting in the tail. It will also be an offence if you are in possession of a deactivated firearm and you don’t give the same notice to the national authority yourself. Where you bought or were given the firearm before 14 September 2018 there is a grace period until 14 March 2021 for you to register the weapon. So, every single person who owns a legally correct deactivated weapon must now register it with the authorities.

Anyone committing an offence under the new regulations will be subject to a fine not exceeding Level 1 on the Standard scale. That’s £200 in case you were wondering. It applies to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Quite how the Police are going to enforce this regulation clearly hasn’t been thought about at all because it comes with the following admission from the Home Office: ‘A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen.’ Which sums up the stupidity of the new regulation perfectly.

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