MINISTERS are under growing pressure to relax a ban on handguns to allow Britain’s champion shooters to train for the Olympic and Commonwealth Games.
At present about 100 competitors spend up to £10,000 a year travelling to Switzerland, where their guns are kept locked in an armoury at a shooting range in Zurich.
Members of the national squad are being handicapped by the ban, because it means that they can train for only 30 days a year. The ban also makes talent-spotting difficult, as it prevents shooting organisations from arranging a domestic competition circuit for the .22 hand pistol 25m event to identify the best shooters.
The issue has been raised by Lord Coe, chairman of the London Olympic Games Organising Committee, but there is caution over such an emotive matter. The ban was imposed in the Firearms Amendments Act 1997 after the massacre in 1996 of 16 children and a teacher at Dunblane Primary School by Thomas Hamilton, a gun collector. The ban applies in England, Wales and Scotland.
There is a handgun ban in Japan, but the Japanese Government allows competition shooters to own and keep charge of their weapons. A similar plan for Britain was put forward by sports organisations but was rejected. The Countryside Alliance is mounting a campaign for the Government to make a special case for competition shooters. A poll conducted by the alliance indicated that 73 per cent of people opposed the ban.
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Kate Hoey, a Labour MP and chairman of the alliance, said: “The ban on lawful pistol shooters is damaging the chances for British medals, but it has done nothing to diminish illegally held weapons for criminal purposes.”
A general exemption already exists allowing Crown servants, police and military to carry small arms. The Home Secretary may also issue certificates to allow individuals to carry handguns for specific reasons.
A meeting will take place this month between Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, and Philip Boakes, chairman of the Great Britain Target Shooting Federation.
John Leighton-Dyson, who trains the national squad, said: “We want the ability to train on a daily basis and we don’t want our guns locked away or kept by others. We also need regional competitions. We really need the team to do daily training . . . Anything less than that will be a disadvantage to our team. This ban is a complete anomaly and was kneejerk legislation.”
The Government granted a dispensation for handguns during the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002, but the rules were so strict that some international teams lodged complaints and are now asking for better conditions for the London Olympics in 2012.
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Shooters were escorted from Heathrow under armed guard and their guns were taken in an armoured vehicle to the national shooting centre at Bisley. Spectators had to watch events behind screens, and shooters were guarded by armed officers even during training.
‘Always at square one’
JULIA LYDALL, 19, is an Olympic hopeful who feels that she is at a disadvantage because she is unable to practise her sport every day.
The British woman’s record holder for 10m air pistol shooting spends four-day weekends in Switzerland to train. She said: “It’s just not practical. To get good you really need to train every day. I get better every time, but when you go back for the next training it is back to square one and you have to start it all again.”
She added that the ideal solution would be to keep a pistol at home or at a local range.
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“When the ban came in the whole sport was devastated overnight. Most pistol shooters just gave up and disappeared from the scene.”
BRITAIN’S BULLSEYES . . . AND BLANKS
1984 Malcolm Cooper, gold, small-bore rifle, three positions; Alister Allan, bronze, small-bore rifle, three positions; Mike Sullivan, bronze, small-bore rifle, prone; Barry Dagger, bronze, air rifle
1988 Malcolm Cooper, gold, small-bore rifle, three positions; Alister Allan, silver, small-bore rifle, three positions
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1992 None
1996 None
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2000 Richard Faulds, gold, double trap. Ian Peel, silver, trap
2004 None