http://content.met.police.uk/Site/firearmslicensingairweapons

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/38/pdfs/ukpga_20060038_en.pdf

If you quote the relevant bit of legislation when reporting a crime then even the most dim witted civilian or policeman will feel obliged to do something.

Babyhead Alley? is that near Shoot-Up Hill?

Under the Violent Crimes Reduction Act of 2004 (or it might be 2005, I can’t remember) it is an offence for anyone to be in possession of a firearm or imitation firearm in a public place, without good reason unless said firearm is in a condition which prevents it from being fired (i.e. unloaded and in a case or slip). Breaching this regulation carries the possibility of a mandatory 5 years imprisonment.

The VCRA includes air guns and airsoft (“BB”) guns in it’s definition of firearms.

Also, if IIRC it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to be in possession of any air-powered firearm at any time unless on private land.

It is an offence to discharge an air rifle within 50 feet of a public right of way, if in so doing you cause a nuisance or danger to members of the public.

Under the terms of the VCRA, what happened to you was a firearms offence. The police should have been far more proactive in responding to it, and should have sent a firearms response team to investigate.

Well the NPT (not NCP like I put earlier) e-mailed back saying someone else had reported seeing youths with rifles in the area about the same time and a search was done but nobody was found.

John Ellison that is interesting. Clearly a few offenses committed here then. I was asked over the phone whether they had cases for the rifles.

Its been posted on the Calderdale MTB facebook page so people are aware of it and to report anything.

Same thing happened to me some 15 years back, me and the mrs had just bought our first house together and I was out on the bike doing some exploring of the area.
Riding through a nearby quarry I passed three youths with an air rifle (who I found out later were at least 17 as I saw them driving around.)
Said orate as I passed then heard the ping of the pellet wizz passed so I span the bike round and took off after them and they bolted.
I headed straight to the one with the gun and caught up with him ghosted the bike and flattened him with a right hook taking his stupid looking cap off.
Snatched the gun from his hand and was real close to smashing it when one of the others came back pleading me not to smash it as it was his.
At this point I had calmed down a little and gave them a bollocking about shooting at people etc and then went on my way.
It was a couple of weeks later when I found out the one that took the shot lived about 4 doors down on the same road we moved to.
I still see him now as we have kids at the same school, he never looks me in the eye………….scrote!!

@Robidoo – long shot but are you the same Robidoo who used to own a Blue T3 camper with a white pop top?

I shoot air rifle at sub 12ft/lb. If you are accurate enough you can easily kill rabbits at 50 yards. The pellet goes straight through the head !

Re the offences listed above, the law is pretty tight on such things. In addition to the above, you must have the rifle in a suitable cover in a public place when transporting to point of use.

It is an offence for the pellet you shoot to cross into private land where you do not have permission to shoot (even if it subsequently ends up in an area where you do have permission (no shooting across corners of other fields) – so whenever I shoot it is my responsibility to ensure no ricochets flying off into adjacent land – only real way to do that is to shoot into a back-stop or downwards.

Any shot fire upwards would need to be up to 400 yards away from adjacent land in case of a miss – even air-rifle pellets travel a long way !

Oh, and br, you should have your rifle confiscated with an attitude like that. You’re dangerous.

A couple of years ago I had some moron taking potshots at my cat with a pellet gun. Teey were firing from the window of a flat on my block so I couldn’t see which window (tbh I was so angry I wanted to sort it myself) – when I couldn’t identify the window I reported it to the police.

5 minutes later 2 plain clothes cops were on a spying mission to see if they could ID the window – I spoke to one of them and was told that an armed response unit were waiting to storm the flat once identified. It was scary stuff. Police did likewise for a guy with a laser pointer who was dazzling motorists.

Obviously you’ve had a bad experience, but generally (or in Scotland at least), the police response to air weapons etc is good to the point of being pretty scary.

As other have suggested, go into a Police station and make a complaint, I think it’ll be taken very seriously.

@rogerthecat , different fella. 😀

Perhaps you should have omitted the word ‘air’ when you told the coppers in the first place – you could realistically not have been sure what they were actually holding

Just thought. Early seventies we bought air rifles from Argos (you could then) We took the to some waste ground and collected load of tins for targets. Anyway the police came, down every access path to the wasteland. Not sure who they were, they had blue overalls and dogs. We were carted off to the cells until our parents were informed, or parent in my case.
Let off and never heard anymore about it. Different now.

Halifax courier reporting 3 people arrested on Tueday with air rifles after shooting at buildings. I’m no Columbo but that is quite a coincidence. I would have though the police would have spoken to me to see if there was a link but I have heard nothing.

Saw that on the rag website… Coincidence indeed.

Paramedic here .

Attended a similar incident 14 years ago

Air rifle hit a 4 year old in his chest.

Small indent no bleeding near to left nipple.

Could not find flattened pellet so presumed worst.

Scan revealed pellet had entered left ventricle of the heart.

He survived..

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/driver-could-been-blinded-after-6264698