Spot-checks for gun club registers

Wednesday 22nd March 2006, 12:00AM GMT.

THE police are to carry out random inspections of gun club registers – a move which will outrage shooters in the Island.

They want to identify people who claim to buy guns for range shooting but who rarely or never attend clubs.

It signals their intention to tighten up policing of the Firearms Law, but target shooters will see it as another attempt to run their sport into the ground.

The clubs already feel under pressure since Home Affairs and the parish Constables announced a review of the gun laws amid concerns about the numbers and types of weapon being held by people.

The police have even been accused of a witch-hunt by one of the sport’s leading lights, Derek Bernard, a former Commonwealth Games competitor and ex-chairman of Jersey’s Island Games Association.

He says random inspections will be unfair and a waste of time.

Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.