A cross-party motion at a meeting of Liverpool city council on the evening of 16 October 2019 has condemned shooting of all animals as “barbaric.”

The motion was put forward after plans for the British Shooting Show to take place in Liverpool in September 2020 were pulled by the council, on the back of mayor Joe Anderson’s intervention to terminate the contract between the Great British Shooting Show and the Exhibition Centre Liverpool.

Garry Doolan of BASC attended the meeting to challenge the motion and speak on behalf of the shooting community.

Mr Doolan delivered a five-minute address to the hearing and said afterwards: “We made extremely robust points in favour of shooting and the work done in conservation to support shooting, but the mayor of Liverpool and the councillors were not interested in our arguments.

“They have labelled all people who shoot in the UK as barbaric and that simply has to be a gross misrepresentation of our community. The motion was illogical when set against the context of the clear, sound evidence we presented in favour of shooting and its economic and environmental benefits.”

Despite a robust challenge by @BASCnews the anti-shooting motion was passed by Liverpool City Council at a hearing at the city’s town hall tonight. BASC has condemned the decision as short-sighted. More follows tomorrow. — BASC (@BASCnews) October 16, 2019



Dr Conor O’Gorman, BASC’s head of campaigns and policy, said: “The City Council should never have been allowed to take such a poorly composed and misinformed motion to this stage. The motion is an attack and slur on the British shooting community.

“This is a simple case of emotions trumping facts and scientific evidence. The vitriol seen on social media from some councillors regarding ‘gun culture’ are an insult to the thousands of legitimate certificate holders who do fantastic work to conserve wildlife and the environment.”

The response from the Shooting Community was swift …

That’s all that shooting in Southport knackered. Oh and the duke of Westminster’s place at Abby stead — jumped up pantry boy (@SimonDlyons) October 16, 2019

So they won’t be conducting any pest control I guess.

Surely hypocritical to poison animals that will endure a horrible painful death as a result. — Graeme Purvis (@graeme2711) October 16, 2019

Shooting Times news editor Matt Cross will be writing up the story in full in next week’s issue, out 23 October. The British Shooting Show in Birmingham will take place as planned at the NEC from 14-16 February 2020.