Firearms UK supports the Scottish Governments efforts to tackle illegal raptor persecution and other wildlife crime….
However, buried in the Environment Minister’s announcement is the following statement;
“I will be asking Scottish Natural Heritage in their capacity as the authority for licensing decisions under section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act to examine how and in what circumstances they can restrict the use of General Licences to trap and shoot wild birds on land where they have good reason to believe that crimes against wild birds have taken place. These General Licences allow the holders to carry out actions that would otherwise be unlawful if undertaken, without any reference to SNH. We regard the use of General Licences as a privilege that should not be extended in circumstances where there is evidence that their use may be facilitating illegal activities.”
Firearms UK is concerned that restricting General Licenses may have an unjustified and unfair impact on law abiding shooters. Why should someone else’s illegal activities impact those who actually obey the law?
The full announcement can be read here
We encourage the law abiding shooters of Scotland to write to their MSPs expressing concern at the potential impact of restrictions to the General Licenses.
You can write to your MSPs via the writetothem online service
