CRIME & SECURITY ACT 2010: AIRGUNS

This Act makes it an offence for an airgun owner to fail to take reasonable precautions to prevent someone under 18 from having unauthorised access to it.

A defence is if that person can show he had reasonable grounds for believing the other person to be 18 or over. The maximum penalty is a fine of £1,000.

This offence does not apply when a young person has an airgun with them under one of the exemption below-

• when they are under the supervision of a person aged 21 or
• when they are a member of a Home Office approved Target Shooting Club and are engaged in or in connection with target shooting.
• where they are using an airgun at a shooting gallery (such as at a fairground for example)
• where they are 14 or over and are on private land with the consent of the occupier.

Therefore, people under 18 can continue to have controlled access to airguns in the same circumstances as previously.

Security precautions

Airgun owners will have to take ‘reasonable precautions’ to prevent unauthorised access to an airgun by people under 18. What ‘reasonable precautions’ might be depends on the circumstances of each individual case. That said, the steps below are a starting point.

This guidance was drawn up in consultation with the police, the principal shooting organisations.

Storage at home etc when not in use

Most important is the presence, or likely presence, of people under 18. Many airgun owners either have children or are visited by friends and relatives with children. To comply with the provisions they will need to take reasonable precautions to prevent those children having unauthorised access to any airguns in their home.

Usually this can be done by using a lockable cupboard and keeping the keys hidden, or they could use a lock or lockable cable to prevent the airgun being moved.

If very young children are concerned, it might be sufficient to store airguns up high and out of their reach, but some form of security cord or device would be far better to guard against a child climbing up to get at it.

If someone has a number of airguns, it might be useful to look at some of the measures in the Home Office’s Firearms Security Handbook 2005 (Home Office Firearm's Security Handbook 2005 ). Although this is aimed at licensed firearms, there are some of the Level One security measures relevant to the safe storage of airguns, and anyone who already has other firearms could use their gun cabinet for their airgun as well.

Preferably, airguns should be stored within the occupied part of a building rather than a garage or shed.

Obviously, airguns should always be unloaded when stored.

When in use

As we said before, the main issue is the presence or likely presence of people under 18. They might be with someone else authorised to use an airgun, but are not authorised to use it themselves, or they might be nearby when one is being used. The most basic precaution is to keep the airgun under supervision and never to leave it unattended.

When someone using an airgun has no option but to put it down for a short time, they should unload it collect any pellets. Whatever suitable steps are possible in the circumstances should be taken to prevent someone under 18 from getting the airgun. This might mean attaching it to a fixed object using a cord or similar device, or locking it out of sight in a car.