CUMBRIAN long-range shooting enthusiasts have hit out at the Government for to going ahead with a ban .50 calibre rifles, saying they “have not seen one piece of evidence” to justify the move.

The Offensive Weapons Bill, first brought to Parliament last year, had its third reading last Monday. Now it is on its way to the House of Lords, which means it is close to becoming law.

As well as introducing laws clamping down on the sale of knives and acid, the Offensive Weapons Bill if passed will ban the most powerful rifles, chief among them .50 calibres.

Capable of destroying a vehicle more than a mile away, .50 calibre rifles fire the same ammunition used by World War II fighter planes.

But in more recent years, the ammunition has been used by civilian rifles in long-range target shooting competitions.

It is this sport that Darren Bean, secretary of the Fifty Calibre Shooters Association UK, says is now under threat from the Offensive Weapons Bill.

“We’d be at a huge disadvantage competing in the world championships,” said Mr Bean, 48, from Warcop.

“Also we’ve been given permission to run one of the competitions over here. Which means that the international teams couldn't come here to shoot.”

Mr Bean is a regular user of the Eskdalemuir rifle range, north of Langholm. Run by gunsmith Marc Gardner, who also owns Gardners Guns in Longtown, it is the only two-mile rifle range in the UK that is not owned by the military.

This means the Eskdalemuir range is one of the few places in the country able to cope with rifles as powerful as .50 calibre.

Last weekend, the Eskdalemuir range held the UK’s first American-style long range shooting competition, the Precision Rifle Series. But the range is also poised to host the most prestigious long-range shooting competition in the US, the King of 2 Miles. But the threat of the looming ban casts doubt over the event taking place.

Mr Gardner, 44, from Sandysike near Longtown, explained its significance.

“The King of 2 Miles is part of the world championship, so to have it here would be huge.”

Mr Gardner’s assistant Helen Fradley explained that the developments at the range could have a sizable impact on the region.

“We could genuinely make a difference to a small economy, like there is here.”

“Just as a small example we had a Dutch club that came over to try our range in July. And there was 21 of them.

“They filled out two of the local hotels for four nights,” said Ms Fradley, 47, who lives in Langholm.

“We sent them to the Annan distillery on the way back, and they spent a fortune there,” Ms Fradley continued.

“That was just one club for one weekend.

“The amount of money we could bring into what is effectively a very depressed economy here is significant. And there’s nobody else doing that. Everybody else is drawing out of the area.”

Mr Gardner explained that long-range shooting, as it requires the remoteness few parts of the country can offer, can be a lifeline to the agricultural communities in the borders region.

“With farming in Scotland now, especially with sheep farming, especially with Brexit coming - they’re surviving at the minute on subsidies.

“If that stops, where are they going to be?

“The income they’re making off the range here, up to now so far this year they’ve doubled what they made with the sheep last year.”

But Mr Gardner, Ms Fradley and Mr Bean are all concerned that the prospect of the highest-calibre rifles being made illegal threatens the future of the sport in the UK.

Ms Fradley said that the King of 2 Mile event could not happen if the ban came into effect.

“You need a weapon with that muzzle velocity in order to reach two miles. And obviously, if it’s banned in this country, then none of the competitors can bring their rifle in.”

But Christopher Lynn, a senior firearms and explosive officer with the National Crime Agency, believes the ban is necessary.

He addressed the Public Bill Committee – the group of MPs responsible for scrutinising the Offensive Weapons Bill – in Parliament on July 17.

Speaking at the meeting, he said:

“These weapons have an enormous energy, and we would support the view that they are inappropriately energetic for a sporting application.”

Mr Bean and other members of the Fifty Calibre Shooters’ Association UK disagree with the comments Mr Lynn made at the meeting.

“The NCA have been giving out a lot of misleading information in front of the select committee, so we've actually put in formal complaints to NCA about the conduct of their staff.

“We're waiting to hear back about that.”

In addition to this, the Association is doing what they can to halt the Government’s plans.

“We have committed to seeking a judicial review on the consultation process if we have to.”

For critics of the Government’s proposed Bill such as Mr Gardner, the strongest argument against the change is that a .50 calibre rifle has never been known to have been used in a crime.

“It’s never been used in a crime. It’s not physically possible to use it in a crime.

“They’re huge, you couldn’t carry one down the street.”

This was acknowledged in the Public Bill Committee meeting this July by Mark Groothius, the national firearms licensing liaison officer for counter-terrorism policing.

“There is no suggestion that legally held .50 rifles have been used in crime,” he said.

Mr Bean feels Mr Groothius has not approached this issue with enough balance.

“In 2004, Mark Groothius, who was a firearms officer at Hertfordshire Police, and thinks that nobody should own firearms, tried to ban .50s,” he said.

“He failed, he's since tried to ban other stuff, and he's now having another go.”

Mr Groothius explained in the July Public Bill Committee meeting that recent criminal activity had informed his position on .50 calibre rifles.

“The threat, as I see it, is that we see an increasing trend of legally held firearms being stolen from certificate holders. The number of guns being stolen is going up,” he said.

For Mr Groothius, banning .50 calibre rifles is the only certain way of addressing the possibility of the weapons falling into the wrong hands.

“It is simply a question, I suppose, of removing the risk,” he said.

“There was one stolen in July 2016, together with ammunition. The .50 was ultimately recovered and, in fact, it had had its barrel sawn off.”

“Although we could say, ‘Let’s increase the security,’ there is only so much you can do.”

In response, Mr Bean and the Fifty Calibre Shooters’ Association UK have proposed the Bill strengthens the legal requirement for securely storing powerful rifles.