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
o    You will need to provide photographic ID at point of delivery
•    This is new and although unclear could mean the ‘buyer’ must be present at delivery and have photographic proof of ID, you will no longer be able to purchase for someone else
o    The packaging must now also include details of the contents 
•    If you don’t want anyone to know what you are purchasing it will need to be delivered to your house not your work 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.

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 and we the retailer will have to be more flexible in our delivery options.

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)