Home office approval

deerly departed

Well-Known Member
If you set up a rimfire target shooting club...do you need to ne a member of the NSRA and do you actually NEED to be HO approved.
 
If you are sticking to .22 rimfire then you can set up a miniature gallery rifle range. You can buy all the rifles and ammunition you need quite legally without even a firearms certificate. You would be wise to have insurance and equally wise to set up the range in accordance with Home Office standards, but that's all you need. It's all in the Firearms Act.
 
No and no.
Adequate insurance is needed though, and getting the range signed off by the nsra is the easiest way.
 
If you set up a rimfire target shooting club...do you need to ne a member of the NSRA and do you actually NEED to be HO approved.

Strictly speaking neither is required though there may be benefits of affiliating to one of the shooting associations but not necessarily the NSRA.
Look up miniature rifle clubs in the Home Office Firearms guidance document and don't be taken in by assurances by the NSRA of what is required, in actual fact you will be better advised on setting up a small-bore rifle club by the NRA.
 
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In theory you could set up such a club range as described above. This would likely result in your local firearms licensing officer foaming at the mouth. The only action I could envisage being taken against the club would be for the police to set the Health and Safety Executive on the club. They would look to find what is acceptable as fewer and fewer people know anything about firearms so they would look to the Home Office standards and if the range did not comply then they would take action by means of prosecution and/or prohibition notices.

Another issue would be that as such a club can allow random people to shoot without needing any form of membership would be the matter of prohibited persons gaining access to firearms and ammunition, particularly if it would be possible for a shooter to sneak ammunition out of the premises. Careful management of such a club would be needed. I'd love to see a resurgence of such clubs although I suspect that the Firearms Act would be amended if they became popular.
 
In theory you could set up such a club range as described above. This would likely result in your local firearms licensing officer foaming at the mouth. The only action I could envisage being taken against the club would be for the police to set the Health and Safety Executive on the club. They would look to find what is acceptable as fewer and fewer people know anything about firearms so they would look to the Home Office standards and if the range did not comply then they would take action by means of prosecution and/or prohibition notices.

Another issue would be that as such a club can allow random people to shoot without needing any form of membership would be the matter of prohibited persons gaining access to firearms and ammunition, particularly if it would be possible for a shooter to sneak ammunition out of the premises. Careful management of such a club would be needed. I'd love to see a resurgence of such clubs although I suspect that the Firearms Act would be amended if they became popular.

You are probably quite correct about possible objections by the local constabulary being voiced on H&S grounds, though this would normally be via the local authority and not the H&S executive who normally only deal with very large premises/high risk premises or in the case of a fatal accident.
With regard to rifle ranges the Home Office do not set any standards it is simply outside their remit. The H.O. approve clubs not ranges.

It is usually the insurance companies that insist that ranges conform in design with recognised standards and if they don't they simply won't insure the club, or more likely take your money and look for a get out in the event of a claim.

You're quite right about scrutiny of existing legislation regarding miniature rifle clubs. I've recently read about certain authorities have suddenly realised that legislation that has been in place for probably over 100 years now without causing any problems whatsoever is "wide open" to possible abuse, and so have recently been suggesting that the provision be revised or revoked. The fact that almost all the miniature rifle clubs in the U.K. have been issued with club FACs just for convenience if nothing else is besides the point. Although perfectly legal to do so just you try purchasing a .22 rifle or .22lr ammunition for your miniature rifle club from a RFD or an individual without a certificate. I doubt that there would be many willing to supply you.
 
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