Member news
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:49 pm
Dear Member
In our strategy which we published last year, we highlighted a series of areas that we would focus on in order to deliver the quality of organisation we feel we should have. I am writing to you now to update you on an element of that strategy.
The areas of focus for the strategy were:
• ‘Catch up’ at Bisley
• Commercial Revenues at Bisley
• Regional development outside Bisley
• Engagement with Government
• ‘Customer Centricity’
We asked for feedback on that strategy and those priorities and one area which came up strongly in that feedback was a more proactive approach to lobbying government on firearms legislation. Events in Cumbria and Tyneside last year made that still more pressing. Hitherto, the NRA had agreed to line up with the BSSC as the lead agency on engaging with government. We decided to change that stance as a result of your feedback and also in recognition that the target shooting community have skills and views which are distinctive and deserve to be heard. This is not to say that we seek to ‘break ranks’ with the BSSC, but we do wish to ensure that your interests are fully represented.
Thus far, that has lead us to produce the papers that you saw in December: ‘Facts about Firearms’ and ‘Proposals for Firearms Legislation’. These were sent to every MP and were favourably mentioned in the Parliamentary debate on 19th December and by Keith Vaz, the Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee in interviews around that time.
We have continued to progress this work, and on 22nd February, the Secretary General of the NRA, Glynn Alger, represented the target shooting community as part of a BSSC delegation which met James Brokenshire MP, the Home Office minister with responsibility for firearms legislation. Glynn, together with some of the NRA trustees has worked up a series of proposals and recommendations which he presented to the Minister and discussed with him.
These covered:
1. Options for improving firearms licensing at lower cost
2. Ages and conditions around youth shooting
3. Reintroduction of Olympic pistol shooting in the UK as a sport
4. The proposal to reclassify shotguns as Section 1 Firearms
5. Consolidation of Firearms legislation.
These topic areas will come as no surprise to those who have read the materials we sent out in December. In this most recent paper, we demonstratde a willingness and capability to enter constructive dialogue on how firearms legislation can be improved.
I am delighted to tell you that the Minister has invited us to continue this process and make more detailed proposals. Clearly, this does not amount to an undertaking by the Minister to adopt our ideas. Equally, I do not wish to inhibit those discussions so I do not intend to share the substance of our proposals at this point. However, I hope that you will see this as the NRA taking a lead role in engaging with government and will join with me in wishing our team every success in pursuing this vital work. In particular I would like to thank Glynn for his leadership in putting the NRA at the forefront of this process.
Over the next few weeks I hope that a number of initiatives which have been underway for some time will reach a point whereby I can share them with you. They are all exciting and important activities which again demonstrate our commitment to deliver on the strategy that we outlined last year.
Regards
Robin Pizer
In our strategy which we published last year, we highlighted a series of areas that we would focus on in order to deliver the quality of organisation we feel we should have. I am writing to you now to update you on an element of that strategy.
The areas of focus for the strategy were:
• ‘Catch up’ at Bisley
• Commercial Revenues at Bisley
• Regional development outside Bisley
• Engagement with Government
• ‘Customer Centricity’
We asked for feedback on that strategy and those priorities and one area which came up strongly in that feedback was a more proactive approach to lobbying government on firearms legislation. Events in Cumbria and Tyneside last year made that still more pressing. Hitherto, the NRA had agreed to line up with the BSSC as the lead agency on engaging with government. We decided to change that stance as a result of your feedback and also in recognition that the target shooting community have skills and views which are distinctive and deserve to be heard. This is not to say that we seek to ‘break ranks’ with the BSSC, but we do wish to ensure that your interests are fully represented.
Thus far, that has lead us to produce the papers that you saw in December: ‘Facts about Firearms’ and ‘Proposals for Firearms Legislation’. These were sent to every MP and were favourably mentioned in the Parliamentary debate on 19th December and by Keith Vaz, the Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee in interviews around that time.
We have continued to progress this work, and on 22nd February, the Secretary General of the NRA, Glynn Alger, represented the target shooting community as part of a BSSC delegation which met James Brokenshire MP, the Home Office minister with responsibility for firearms legislation. Glynn, together with some of the NRA trustees has worked up a series of proposals and recommendations which he presented to the Minister and discussed with him.
These covered:
1. Options for improving firearms licensing at lower cost
2. Ages and conditions around youth shooting
3. Reintroduction of Olympic pistol shooting in the UK as a sport
4. The proposal to reclassify shotguns as Section 1 Firearms
5. Consolidation of Firearms legislation.
These topic areas will come as no surprise to those who have read the materials we sent out in December. In this most recent paper, we demonstratde a willingness and capability to enter constructive dialogue on how firearms legislation can be improved.
I am delighted to tell you that the Minister has invited us to continue this process and make more detailed proposals. Clearly, this does not amount to an undertaking by the Minister to adopt our ideas. Equally, I do not wish to inhibit those discussions so I do not intend to share the substance of our proposals at this point. However, I hope that you will see this as the NRA taking a lead role in engaging with government and will join with me in wishing our team every success in pursuing this vital work. In particular I would like to thank Glynn for his leadership in putting the NRA at the forefront of this process.
Over the next few weeks I hope that a number of initiatives which have been underway for some time will reach a point whereby I can share them with you. They are all exciting and important activities which again demonstrate our commitment to deliver on the strategy that we outlined last year.
Regards
Robin Pizer