Firearms Act 1965

9 Miscellaneous amendments of principal Act

(1) In the following provisions of the principal Act, that is to say, section 16(1)(a) (exception from the application of Part I of that Act of shot guns, that is to say, smooth-bore guns having barrels not less than twenty inches in length) and section 24(1) (prohibition on shortening such guns to less than twenty inches) for the words " twenty inches " there shall be substituted the words " twenty-four inches " ; and accordingly a reference to twenty-four inches shall be substituted for the reference to twenty inches in the definition of shot gun in section 4 of the [1962 c. 49.] Air Guns and Shot Guns, etc., Act 1962.

(2) Notwithstanding anything in the said section 16(1)(a), sections 7 to 10, 12 and 13 of, and Schedule 2 to, the principal Act (requirement for firearms dealers to register, and provisions with respect to the registration of such dealers, their places of business and their firearms transactions) shall have effect as if any reference therein and in the definition of firearms dealer in section 32 of that Act to firearms to which Part I of that Act applies included a reference to shot guns; but—

(a) if it appears to the chief officer of police that a person required to be registered as a firearms dealer carries on a trade or business in the course of which he manufactures, tests or repairs component parts or accessories for shot guns, but does not manufacture, test or repair complete shot guns, and that it is impossible to assemble a shot gun from the parts likely to come into that person's possession in the course of that trade or business, the chief officer of police may, if he thinks fit, by notice in writing given to that person exempt his transactions in those parts and accessories, so long as the notice is in force, from all or any of the provisions of subsections (1) and (2) of the said section 12 and of the said Schedule 2; and

(b) in its application to shot guns so much of paragraph 3 of the said Schedule 2 as requires particulars of the areas in which the firearms certificates were issued to be entered in the register of transactions kept under the said section 12 shall be omitted.

(3) For section 21(1) of the principal Act (prohibition of persons sentenced to preventive detention or corrective training or to imprisonment for a term of three months or more from possessing firearms and ammunition for five years after release) there shall be substituted the following subsection:—

“(1) Subject to the provisions of this section—

(a) a person who has been sentenced to preventive detention, or to imprisonment or to corrective training for a term of three years or more, or who has been sentenced to be detained for such a term in a young offenders institution in Scotland, shall not at any time have a firearm or ammunition in his possession; and

(b) a person who has been sentenced to borstal training, to corrective training for less than three years or to imprisonment for a term of three months or more but less than three years, or who has been sentenced to be detained for such a term in a detention centre or in a young offenders institution in Scotland, shall not at any time before the expiration of the period of five years from the date of his release have a firearm or ammunition in his possession”.

(4) For section 21(2)(a) of the principal Act (prohibition on ex-prisoners and others under licence from possessing firearms and ammunition), in its application both to England and Wales and to Scotland, there shall be substituted the following paragraph:—

“(a) is the holder of a licence issued under section 53 of the [1933 c. 12.] Children and Young Persons Act 1933 or section 57 of the [1937 c. 7.] Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937”.

(5) The exemption in section 24(1) of the principal Act for registered firearms dealers shall cease to have effect; but that subsection shall not prevent any such dealer from shortening the barrel of a smooth-bore gun for the sole purpose of replacing a defective part of the barrel so as to produce a barrel of not less than twenty-four inches in length.

(6) In section 25(1) of the principal Act (power of court to order forfeiture of firearms on sentencing a person to imprisonment, etc.) for the words " or imprisonment" there shall be substituted the words " imprisonment, borstal training or detention in a detention centre or in a young offenders institution in Scotland ".