A growing craze of American combat-style shooting clubs is glamourising firearms – 25 years after the Dunblane handgun ban.
A Sunday Mail investigation has revealed a disturbing spike in “practical shooting” courses in Scotland which allow people to fire against the clock, using obstacles and improvised shooting positions to hit targets. Footage of one club near Glasgow, now being probed by council bosses, shows men ducking and diving around a course, pulling guns out of holsters before discharging quick-fire bullets.
Recoil Scotland said people – who do not hold a licence and who’ve never shot a gun before – can turn up for a three-hour training session and then get their hands on the club’s pump-action shotgun. Last night, gun control campaigners and families of Dunblane victims said the “sport” terrified them and called for a ban.
Jack Crozier, whose sister Emma was one of 16 children killed with their teacher in the 1996 tragedy, said: “These clubs are trivialising the use of dangerous weapons while trying to make shooting more accessible. Watching the videos from some clubs online is terrifying.
"It’s hyped-up wannabe action men running around assault courses with lethal weapons trying to shoot a series of targets as quickly as possible. These types of clubs glamourise shooting and weapons. This is an Americanised sport and it’s everything we want to get away from in the UK.”
Gill Marshall-Andrews, chair of the Gun Control Network, warned that the UK’s gold standard gun laws were in danger of being eroded with the practical shooting craze.
She said: “In 1996 at the time of Dunblane, pistol shooting was the fastest growing sport in the country and we were going down the American road at that point. The ban on handguns turned the country around and prevented that drift towards that American gun culture. Now it seems that is happening again.”
The guns clubs use are legal in the UK. Gas powered guns and rifles called Action Air weapons have become very popular in the US and Europe in recent years as they don’t require licences. Recoil Scotland, based in Shotts, Lanarkshire, runs practical shotgun, mini rifle, long barrel pistol disciplines.
On its website it claims to be “Scotland’s newest and fastest growing practical shooting club” and boasts of plans to expand to more than 10 ranges across the country. The club, paid for by members, offers guests a three-hour safety session where participants who’ve never fired a gun before allowed on their ranges.
The club’s website says that following a safety induction it expects probationers to have applied for and be in possession of a Shotgun Certificate (SGC) by the end of six months. Videos on the club’s Facebook site show members and guests doing practical shooting. In one video, uploaded in October 2020, one shooter runs around fences and barriers to hit human-shaped metal cutouts.
In another, uploaded by Recoil, titled, “fun and festive practical shooting” at Galloway Small Arms Club, men in Santa hats and Christmas jumpers reload as they try to hit targets. One member in a TikTok-style video on YouTube is seen on a reel reloading his long barrelled shotgun wearing an Evolution gun T-shirt.
Recoil Scotland’s range, which lies down a farm track, isn’t advertised, with only map coordinates given on the website. Behind 6ft fences and locked gates, a sign warns trespassers not to enter due to “live firing 24 hours”.
The club’s warehouse, which serves as their Action Air range, is visible from the outskirts and a flag bearing a skull and crossbones flickers on a mast in the wind from a wooden pirate ship. Recoil Scotland does also not advertise its registered address and main trading address due to “site security purposes”.
North Lanarkshire Council said it was investigating the firm. It confirmed a planning application did not exist for Recoil’s new site. A spokeswoman said its planning team “will now investigate if a planning breach is taking place”.
Jack, 29, who now lives in London, said: “We need to get ahead of this before it goes any further. It’s being called sport but there is no place for it in Scotland. The people running these clubs know what happened at Dunblane and they are wilfully ignoring that for the sake of money in their pocket.”
“We don’t need to wait until something happens to learn the lessons. We have already learned the lessons. Places like this should be shut down, licenses taken away and preventative measures put in place to make sure places like this are never opened again.
“The type of weapons these people are using on their ranges is something that can fire a lot of bullets very quickly. It doesn’t matter the calibre or velocity of that bullet, if it hits you, it’s still a bullet. There is no argument to justify the use of these weapons for sport.”
The Sunday Mail, along with Dunblane families, campaigned tirelessly for gun control after the atrocity. The Snowdrop campaign, which gathered a million signatures – including 450,000 from our readers – became law in October 1997.
Repeated requests to contact Christopher Toner, who refers to himself as “CEO at Recoil Scotland” failed. His sidekick John Prunty, from Chapelhall in Lanarkshire, said: “Me and Chris aren’t part of the club at the moment. We’re taking our time off it. I’m at work and I don’t have time to talk to you about it.”
The Galloway Small Arms Club, based in Dumfries, could not be contacted for comment. Firearms UK, an association campaigning for the protection of firearms ownership in the UK, failed to respond. In June, it tweeted: “UK gun owners are some of the most oppresed (sic) people who get no legal protection.”
The UK Practical Shooting Association (UKPSA), which regulates the discipline and rules over competitions, has 1000 members and 42 clubs in the UK. It didn’t respond to a request for comment. Police figures show the number of gun licences issued in Scotland this year had increased to 102,861 compared to 101,440 in 2021, 98,506 in 2020 and 96,247 in 2019.
The number of firearm offences has also risen in Scotland in recent years. Official statistics released earlier this year found there were 341 firearm offences in 2019-2020, an increase of three per cent on the previous 12 months.
There’s nothing to suggest any of the gun clubs in Scotland or their members are operating outwith the law. The Scottish Government is responsible for granting approval to any rifle, mini rifle or muzzle-loading pistol club.
They were unable confirm yesterday if it had granted a licence to Recoil Scotland. A spokesman would only issue this statement: “The licensing regime provides protection for communities by helping keep firearms out of the hands of those who might misuse them.
“Decisions about granting firearm, shotgun and/or air weapon certificates are an operational matter for police.”
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