Private gun sale controls under consideration: the sector overview
The Home Office is weighing stronger controls on private sales of firearms and shotguns between certificate holders. What the signal means for everyday transfers across the disciplines
Credit: Olena Bartienieva/iStockphoto via Getty Images
A single sentence in a written parliamentary answer has given the shooting sector its clearest sight yet of where firearms licensing reform is heading. The Government is considering stronger controls on the private sale of firearms and shotguns by certificate holders, policing minister Sarah Jones confirmed on 9 July. For the show community, where private sales are part of the conversation on every gun stand and in every club marquee, it is a signal worth reading in full.
What did the policing minister say?
Ruth Cadbury, the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentford and Isleworth, had asked how many forged shotgun certificates had been used to buy shotguns in England over the past five years, and what was being done to reduce their use. “Data on the number of forged firearms certificates used to purchase shotguns in England is not collected centrally,” Ms Jones replied. She added: “The law is clear on the sales of shotguns that a purchaser must hold the appropriate firearms certificate and transactions must comply with the relevant legal requirements and police procedures in place. The Government is considering what further action may be needed to strengthen the controls on the private sale of firearms and shotguns by licence holders.”
Why does every discipline have a stake?
Private sales between certificate holders are a routine and lawful part of the sport in every discipline, from a shotgun changing hands between club members to a rifle sold on when a stalker upgrades. Any strengthening of the rules would therefore reach beyond dealers and into those everyday transfers between individual shooters. No proposals have been published, and the written answer does not say what form new controls could take; with no central data on forged certificates, how sales are verified between private individuals is the obvious gap a consultation would examine.
How does this fit the wider licensing picture?
The signal lands with firearms licensing already moving. Sound moderators were removed from licensing control on 29 June under the Crime and Policing Act 2026, certificate numbers in England and Wales are falling, and the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) has renewed its call for a single national licensing authority to replace force-by-force administration.
What happens next
Ministers said in January that a consultation on the firearms licensing system would be published shortly. It has yet to appear, and the 9 July answer suggests private sales will be within its scope. The Home Office has not given a date, so for now the position is unchanged and the sector watches for the consultation to open. The full story is on Sporting Gun, linked below.
Useful links
Buying and selling shotguns privately: where the rules stand (Sporting Gun, the full story)