The Illusion of Democracy
If you have seen some of the headlines in web versions of the 'high quality' press yesterday (19th March 2026) you will have seen that crossbows are going to be banned. The government statement (click here) mentions a ban and licensing despite 86% of the consultation response stating there is no need for ANY further regulations. The statement then goes on to state the details below so who knows what's happening this government change their minds daily. What we do know is that whatever they decide it could take months if not years to implement and you will not be required to hand in your crossbow just have a very simple licence as they do for air rifles as anything more complicated will tie the police up for years and we would all prefer them to be doing something more productive like catching actual criminals. Why ask the public what they think if you then completely ignore them? This just smacks of Boaty McBoatface where the public overwhelmingly voted for this name for the exploration ship yet what is it called 'The Sir David Attenborough"! You may think you live in a democracy but this is just another example of how you are clearly not. This maybe a ban on crossbows but you can see they are working down the weapon ladder and compound bows will be next then recurves until there is no more target sports in the UK. Once again the law abiding citizen pays the price for the actions of a tiny criminal element (less than 1 murder with a crossbow per year). At least we can all sleep soundly in our beds knowing these individuals will not kill anyone once they can't access a crossbow!

Before ban announcement 19th March 2026
Well finally we have some clarification as to what new measures the government intend to introduce to regulate crossbow ownership in the UK. We have included a link to the relevant documentation at the bottom of this page but the takeaway points for you the customer are:-

o    You will have to provide photographic ID (passport/drivers licence) at point of sale
•    Previously you only had to provide this if you were not on the electoral roll and those without either passport or drivers licence (photo) will no longer be able to purchase crossbows or accessories
•    You will need to provide an official form of picture ID such as passport or drivers licence
•    You will also need to provide a current picture of yourself holding the ID
o    You will need to provide official photographic ID at point of delivery
•    The ‘buyer’ must be present at delivery and have photographic proof of ID, you will no longer be able to purchase for someone else or deliver or to an alternative address
•    Crossbows & accessories can no longer be collected ie post office or drop lockers
•   This service is ONLY available to mainland UK customers so we will no longer be able to supply to Northern Ireland, Isle of Man etc (no change to Channel Islands though).
o    The packaging must now also include details of the contents 
•    The content details must be displayed on the outside of the box
•    Please bear this in mind if it being delivered to your work (must be entered as your billing address)
o    Retailers will need to use an ID check system through their courier
•    That is going to increase delivery costs which will have to be passed on and some couriers do not provide this service in certain areas
o    Crossbow parts and accessories have been included in the new rules
•    ID will now be required to buy and have delivered accessories and the price of delivery will have to increase.
o    Courier companies can no longer delivery to UK addresses from companies based outside of the UK
•    Non UK based companies will no longer be able to deliver to you and the goods will be confiscated at customs

In Brief
The new rules are focussing on the age limit whilst really making it more difficult to order crossbows and accessories online and have them delivered at your convenience plus the costs of shipping will increase due to the check ID facility. You the customer are going to have to be available for delivery, we the retailer will have to be more vigilant in our ID processing and the courier must ensure they deliver to the name on the package which may lead to missed delivery charges.
Our Opinion
Thankfully they have not decided to implement a licensing system which would have been a complete nightmare for our police force who let’s be honest have more important work to do than spend their time making sure you are a fit person to own an item you can make at home and was at one time on the school woodworking curriculum. We as a retailer welcome stricter rules on crossbow ownership in the hope it reduces these knee jerk reaction incidents where the news story seems to be about the inanimate object not the actions of the individual. Nearly every single crossbow owner in the UK is a law abiding citizen who use them for recreation and they are also used for mountain rescue, whale biopsies, tree felling amongst many other uses and by disabled archers. We find the use of crossbows for harming others abhorrent and hope that along with the new measures the government implements more often the 4 year custodial sentence for carrying a crossbow in public. Crossbows have been around for centuries yet the stigma is still here and the papers continue to exacerbate this with every incident. Just including the word crossbow in the headline is guaranteed to stoke the ‘ban everything’ brigade who know little of the facts and just how few incidents there are in comparison to the number of crossbows owned. It is refreshing to see a couple of MP’s Lee Anderson (Reform) and Kieran Mullan (Conservative) who have highlighted that the issue is NOT with the inanimate object but with the individual concerned, their ideology, mental health and their access to harmful social media content. The very thought of these terrible incidents being averted if the perpetrator had no access to crossbows is quite preposterous. There is a very good article by Michael Mosbacher (click here) of the Telegraph on how banning does not solve the problem and can in fact increase it. It is a fact that there are currently more handguns in the UK than before the ban and you can guess who own them, yes criminals.

There have been less than 10 murders by crossbow in the last 10 years which is of course too many but as crossbows have also been used by mountain rescue teams for almost 20 years there is a good chance more people have been saved than killed by crossbows. We at Outdoorhobbies are fully behind any sensible measures that limit the access of crossbows to those dangerous individuals intent on harm and will report any suspicious activity by buyers. Making crossbows harder for criminals to buy is no brainer but this should not remove them from those law abiding citizens who use crossbows legitimately and legally.

Details on the new rules - (click here)