Surrender of MARS and Lever Release rifles under OWA 2019

Published on:
Dec 11, 2020

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Surrender of MARS and Lever Release rifles under the Offensive Weapons Act 2019

NRA Guidance to Owners

On 10 December 2020 The Home Office published documents enabling owners to surrender their rifles and ancillary items and claim compensation.

The NRA has scrutinised the documents and provides the following advice to members surrendering items in accordance with the law and claiming compensation for their property.

What has been prohibited?

To be precise:

any rifle with a chamber from which empty cartridge cases are extracted using energy from propellant gas, or energy imparted to a spring or other energy storage device by propellant gas, other than a rifle which is chambered for .22 rim-fire cartridges. (Section 5(1)(ag) Firearms Act 1968 inserted by Section 54 Offensive Weapons Act 2019)

In practice this includes the Caledonian Arms VZ58 MARS rifles in 5.56mm or 7.62x39mm calibres and the Southern Gun Company Lever Release rifles in 9mm, .45”, .223”/5.56mm or .308” calibres.  We cannot exclude the possibility that there may be a very few rifles of other types that fall within the prohibition.

Shotguns, .22” semi-automatic firearms, underlever rifles and straight-pull rifles by any manufacturer are not included in the prohibition.

What can I claim compensation for?

The rifle and any ancillary items that cannot be used with any firearm that has not been prohibited, provided that you owned it or had contracted to buy it before 20 June 2018, the date that the Offensive Weapons Bill was published. There is a list of recognised ancillary items (see page 6); a case will have to be made individually for items not on the list.

How much compensation do I get?

There is a table of standard values; if your firearm or ancillary appears on that list and you accept the standard value that is what you should get.  If you do not accept the standard value you will have to provide evidence of value for each item (eg purchase receipts, prices from suppliers’ catalogues).

What do I have to do?

To obtain compensation you must follow the process, which ends on 9 March 2021.  To avoid prosecution (unauthorised possession of a prohibited firearm) you must surrender your firearm or otherwise lawfully dispose of it before the prohibition on possession comes into effect shortly after 9 March 2021.  We expect it to be all but impossible to dispose of a MARS or LR rifle legally other than by surrender under the process.

We suggest reading at least the Guidance on the surrender and compensation scheme (particularly Annexes B and D), the Compensation Claim Form and the Table of Values List.  Then download, print and fill in the Claim Form, make a copy, and wait for your firearms licensing office to contact you to arrange a date time and place for the surrender of your firearms and ancillaries.  We understand that the intention is that the police will collect firearms and ancillaries rather than you having to take them to a police station. Do not take firearms and ancillaries to a police station unless asked to do so.

When you surrender the firearms and ancillaries, make sure that you get a copy of the receipt (annex B to the Claim Form) and that the police take the completed Claim Form along with the rifle(s) and ancillaries.  Then wait to be contacted by the Home Office.  If your claim is accepted without further enquiry, which we expect will be the case for all claims within the table of standard values, it will be paid by cheque from the Home Office.  Non-standard claims will be subject to scrutiny and further information may be sought from you.

Anything to Beware of?

If the police are coming to collect your rifle and you happen to be surrendering knives or other newly-prohibited offensive weapons as well, do tell them beforehand.  It shouldn’t be a problem but you don’t want them refusing because they weren’t aware.

Remember the limit on ancillary equipment.  If it isn’t part of the rifle itself, you can only claim for it if you couldn’t put it on another firearm.

If you have not been contacted by the police by 5 January 2021 we suggest you contact them by email, phone or web portal.

We advise that you make two complete copies of the Claim Form, keeping one as backup to the receipt.

What if I can’t download the forms?

Contact NRA legal services 01483 797777 ext 154 or legal@nra.org.uk . We will print and post a set.

Relevant documents:

Offensive Weapons Act Surrender and Compensation Scheme – document index

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/offensive-weapons-act-surrender-and-compensation-scheme

Guidance for Surrender and Claiming Compensation

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/942563/2020_12_08_Guidance_for_surrender_and_making_a_claim.pdf

List of Designated Police Stations

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/offensive-weapons-act-surrender-and-compensation-scheme/list-of-designated-police-stations

Offensive Weapons Act Surrender and Compensation Scheme – Claim Form

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/942567/2020_12_08_OWA_surrender_and_compensation_scheme_form.odt

Offensive Weapons Act Values List

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/942575/2020_11_05_Values_List.pdf

The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 (See in particular S54)

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/17/contents

The Firearms Act 1968 see in particular S5(1)(ag)

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/27/contents

Surrender of Offensive Weapons (Compensation) Regulations 2020

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1321/contents/made

Contact the NRA:

01483 797777 ext 154 or legal@nra.org.uk