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Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

Over here in the UK we have just been told by the Royal Mail that they will not carry any firearms airgun or parts from November 2012.

This will completely F*ck up the whole airgun business over here, the only place you will be able to get parts pellets scopes etc will be from a shop, at the moment things like barrels compression tubes rifles pistols etc have to be collected from a firearms dealer who has a licence to sell the same.

This will put the shooting fraternity in turmoil, it will effect custom part makers, Chambers say they will have to shut down, so you can see this is a crisis.

I know most of the members of AirGunHome live in the States or Canada, and this doesn’t effect them but it effects around one million UK shooters.

A despondent Al

HallisChalmers · Member

That's a sad state of affairs. I like buying stuff from the boys at GMAC, so this will seriously affect their business.

Is there any move by UK airgunners to fight this?

oddtodd · Silver Status Member

Hopefully if enough people raise a stink they will change their minds. GO for it Al!

mod90 · Veteran Member

It seems to me that sport shooters around the world are continuously being dealt the short end of the stick. I feel for you Al Crying or Very sad

Do you know the reason why they're stopping? Could it be an insurance issue? Or just a government's bad judgment call?

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

HallisChalmers
We do have the BASC (British Association of Shooting Conservation) with a 12000 members, making out a case to stop new rules.
Companies like GMAC and there are a lot of them can use private carriers but the delivery cost would treble.

oddtodd
There will be a lot of protesting not only by air gunners but also suppliers and dealers. This directive also covers firearms and shotguns.

mod90
The main reason is that Guns are anti-social because of the gangs of young black kids that have Firearms and go around on cycles shooting each other, and anyone who gets in the way, and airguns get lumped in with powder burners. Also the Royal Mail is now being privatised and the guy in charge thinks it is morally wrong to ship guns and spares, the daft thing about this is that only licensed dealers can ship and receive guns and parts anyway, the public has to collect any items from them.

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

This is the E-Mail I received from T W Chambers & Co. Any one who buys from the UK it would be appreciated if you would send an e-mail off to the address below supporting our protest.

Al

The Royal Mail are proposing changes to ban the posting of firearms, air guns and component parts. This will affect all of our customers if these proposals go through and may result in the closure of T W Chambers and many other UK based gun shops as there is no other alternative service to ship your orders.
Please see the Royal Mail link below and respond to it before the 17th Sept 2012. As customers who rely on the Royal Mail to ship your orders to you, then you would be entitled to respond to these proposals. Overseas customers please also respond.
Please email your responses to zoe.allchorn@royalmail.com and cc it also to martin.anderson@royalmail.com

Link to Royal Mail proposals, http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/Proposals_to_prohibit_Firearms_from_postal_services.pdf

Thank You.

T W Chambers & Co

SMP · Silver Status Member

rsterne · Moderator

I emailed the Royal Mail asking them to reconsider.... Fine quality UK guns and parts will become unavailable in Canada.... etc.etc.etc....

Bob

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

It now appears that the reason the Post Office is doing this is that under a new law that came out four years ago? This states the all firearms including airguns and parts must be transported in a safe and secure manner. The Post Office says it cannot provide this level of security for all mail. (They have been doing this for the last four years and breaking the law with no problems.) they will take guns from a company that has a contract with them to ship by secure means, but this no good for an individual who needs to return a faulty gun etc.

We have FedEx and UPS plus a load of others, UPS stopped shipping Guns two years ago but I believe they have started again, FedEx is no problem, and I suppose others will ship also but these are expensive compared to Royal Mail. This is more so when they have to collect from the sender, something like a bolt for a Crosman $3.00 to send in the UK by RM, by FedEx $12.00

Another thing is that lots of people buy from abroard and the sender sends it by the local post office, as soon as it gets here the Royal Mail takes over, so what happens then?

So I don’t know it seems to be one almighty cock-up!

Al

SMP · Silver Status Member

Well.....

I'll bet their will be a lot of turkey basters sent to Mrs Hazel Longbottom.

garththomas · Veteran Member

I just received in the mail some parts from gmac in England and there was no mention of any restrictions