Below from Taunton and Wellington lib dems.
I added a bit mentioning clay / target shooting, which they appear supportive of... Game shooting / pest control, much less so.
Forwarded to politics email.
Thank you for writing to me on this.
Since the calling of the election I have begun to receive up to a hundred emails per day and whilst we sent many replies a little while ago a number of email accounts would not accept emails from this address which has caused delays to for some, for which apologies.
I have read the BASC five point manifesto and am generally supportive of it.
In particular I very much support the case for sustainable shooting such as by clay shooters and target shooters in particular and support these field sports, I’m keen to support rural life and businesses wherever I can (1) and I’d be keen to come clay shooting locally sometime.
While I would not personally take part in any shooting of live animals for sport, given the BASC policy of respecting quarry species and as a Liberal, I recognise the importance of shooting and would not support an outright ban on doing so at this stage based on the provisos set out in the BASC manifesto and given the role pheasant and partridge farming plays in local economies and communities and the conservation benefits. However, I would be willing to keep this under review (2).
I strongly support a properly resourced firearms licensing system (3).
I recognise there can be a need for shooting for pest management, rather than just for sport, provided this is humanely carried out (4).
While it probably isn’t the job of government to be “building participation in shooting sports”(which I think is more for BASC and other enthusiasts than for he state) I do agree with the concept of developing and “facilitating shooting’s contribution to conservation” (5).
We need to move towards shooting and related sports which do not unnecessarily harm animals and which contribute to reversing the climate and nature emergencies that we face.
To this end I and our Taunton and Wellington Liberal Democrat team have planted hundreds of trees here in our area in each of the last five years - we plant trees for every leaflet we publish.