8.—(1) In section 18 of the 1988 Act (firearms acquired for export), after subsection (1) there shall be inserted the following subsection—
“(1A) A person shall not be entitled under subsection (1) above to purchase any firearm which falls within category B for the purposes of Annex I to the European weapons directive unless he—
(a)produces to the dealer from whom he purchases it a document which—
(i)has been issued under provisions which, in the member State where he resides, correspond to the provisions of the principal Act for the issue of Article 7 authorities; and
(ii)contains the prior agreement to the purchase of that firearm which is required by Article 7 of the European weapons directive;
(b)shows that he is purchasing the firearm exclusively in connection with the carrying on of activities in respect of which he, or the person on whose behalf he is purchasing the firearm, is recognised, for the purposes of the law of another member State relating to firearms, as a collector of firearms or a body concerned in the cultural or historical aspects of weapons; or
(c)shows that he resides in the United Kingdom or outside the member States.”
(2) In subsection (4) of that section (particulars of transaction involving a sale of a firearm for export which are to be entered in the register), at the end there shall be inserted “and, in a case where the transaction is one for the purposes of which a document such as is mentioned in subsection (1A)(a) above is required to be produced, particulars of the agreement contained in that document.”
(3) After subsection (5) of that section there shall be inserted the following subsection—
“(6) In the case of any failure to comply with subsection (2) above which is confined to the omission from a notice of the particulars of an agreement contained in a document such as is mentioned in subsection (1A)(a) above, subsection (5) above shall have effect as if for “six months”there were substituted “three months”.”