560,000 people own a gun in the UK - do you have a gun in your family?

[cakeorwine]

Quite surprised to hear this statistic today - but it's true

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-firearm-and-shotgun-certificates-england-and-wales-april-2020-to-march-2021/statistics-on-firearm-and-shotgun-certificates-england-and-wales-april-2020-to-march-2021

That seemed a lot. I know some large landowners and farmers probably own one - but 560,000? That seems a lot.

Just curious if you have one in your family and what it's used for?

DB inherited our dads shotguns. Used for clay pigeon shooting only these days. Prior to that some farm based pest shooting and clay pigeon shooting of a boxing day.

My grandad had several shotguns for pest control. When he died, we handed them into the police.
I know a few people that have them for clay pigeon shooting.

Yes. I have a shotgun licence, and am a competition shot. I have a few county caps for clay shooting.

My security was checked and approved by the police licensing officer last month. My Gp had to approve my application before my licence was renewed too.

My Dad haa two shotguns - he shoots clay pigeons. Or he did until his shoulder packed in.

They are locked in a safe.

I know a few people who Shoot. They all use fairly slow to load shot guns.
As others have said, fortunately they are not the weapon for mass shooting easily. Some can take 10 seconds or longer to reload.
It is also really tightly controlled.

Those statistics are for England and Wales, not the UK. Still a very small proportion of the population though.

No and I don't think I know anyone who would have one either.

Yes dh does for farming purposes, they are not kept in the actual house though, but elsewhere on the property in a secure place. Cartridges are also kept in a separate place to the guns. He rarely has the need for using them though (rodent population kept at bay by 4 resident thugs farm cats, and an eager terrier) and he dosent shoot for pleasure purposes.
We also have a few very old antique guns that belonged to dhs ancestors, these have had something done to them though so they can no longer be shot and are therfore secure and safe. Two of which are on loan to a museum as are rare.

A friend of ours has several but these are again older ones and are for shows, displays and reenactment purposes, some of them have been used in movies and TV programmes before.

Yes, we have them for vermin control on the farm.

I think you are underestimating how popular shooting and clay pigeon shooting is for quite a lot of people

I’m surprised it’s that low tbh…
(we have 3 guns in our household)

Plenty of people have guns. I know someone in our village who bought one having joined a shooting club as a new hobby.
I also know someone whose Grandson shoots with the England squad - a sport he took up because both his Grandfather and father used to shoot.

I have fired a shotgun on 2 occasions - once when a friend took up clay pigeon shooting and bought a shotgun and the other was FIL's shotgun when we did some target practice in his garden (5 acres) but he mainly used it for shooting rabbits. He traded it down for an air rifle eventually and got rid when he moved to a smaller property.

A couple of friends do for seasonal shoots, and another who is a veteran, she shoots in veteran competitions.

I don’t know if the stat is still true but I remember reading years ago but there are/were more guns registered to houses in Chelsea than to houses in the whole of Gloucestershire…

There's something like 200,000 farms in the UK so that's about a 3rd of your guns there as I think most will have a gun license and at least 1 gun. There there ate game keepers, hobby shooters rtc etc. Not too hard to believe.

I wouldnt, but my abusive ex used to have one in his kitchen (in a gun cupboard).. it scared me.. i never understood why he was allowed to have one, given that hes a builder who lives in a small terraced house and doesnt go to any shooting clubs etc.

Most will be shotguns, and in order to get a license you are visited by the police and have to have a secure cabinet to keep them in. Any mental health issues are taken very seriously and a license can be revoked relatively quickly.

I'm guessing this figure has come out because of the recent Texas shooting? UK gun ownership is so much better regulated. People that need guns (or even just want guns for a particular sport) can get them, and use them legally. It just stops people owning them "just in case" or "for self defence" which results in next to no gun crime from legally owned weapons in the UK.

Yes. Like most of those people we have shotguns. Used to have handguns, that's how old we are.

Regular shooters, weekly for about 30 years.

Do re-enactors using black powder need a gun licence? That’s take up a chunk of those numbers, OP.

DH has a few shotguns. He shoots the pigeons eating the farmers crops and sometimes goes pheasant shooting. 560,000 is actually very low when compared to the 54 million adults in the UK.

My father has several rifles. Before Dunblane and the subsequent handgun ban, he had pistols instead. He has almost 60 years of competition shooting experience and still wins competitions in his 70s. He never shoots living things.

There are stringent measures in place to ensure the security of all weapons and ammunition.

Yes we do, we enjoy going clay shooting

I know a few competitive rifle shooters and they have to jump through a lot of hoops wrt to licensing. DS used to shoot at the local club and used the club rifles, it was all very tightly controlled.

Why would someone have a gun in a library?

Yes, I do, several shotguns and several rifles which I use for target shooting, pest control, game shooting and hunting for the pot. Have had a shotgun certificate since the age of 15 and a firearms certificate since I was 17 - all legally held and perfectly normal in rural communities where they are the 'tool of the trade' for many, many people.