Northern Ireland. 2004 ‘Article 2: Interpretation.’ Firearms (Northern Ireland) Order 2004; Part I, pp. 1-4. Belfast: Northern Ireland Assembly. 10 March

Relevant contents

Interpretation

2.—(1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 (c. 33) applies to this Order as it applies to an Act of the Assembly.

(2) In this Order—

"firearm" means a lethal barrelled weapon of any description from which any shot, bullet or other missile can be discharged and includes —
(a)any prohibited weapon, whether it is such a lethal weapon or not;
(b)any component part of such a lethal or prohibited weapon; and
(c)any accessory to any such weapon designed or adapted to diminish the noise or flash caused by firing the weapon;

"firearms dealer" means a person who by way of trade or business manufactures, sells, transfers, repairs, tests or proves firearms or ammunition;

"handgun" means any firearm which either has a barrel less than 30 centimetres in length or is less than 60 centimetres in length overall, other than an air gun, a muzzle-loading firearm or a firearm designed as a signalling apparatus;

"revolver" means a firearm containing a series of chambers which revolves when it is fired;

"self-loading" and "pump action", in relation to any firearm, mean respectively that it is designed or adapted (otherwise than as mentioned in Article 45(1)(a)) so that it is automatically reloaded or that it is so designed or adapted that it is reloaded by the manual operation of the fore-end or forestock of the firearm;

"shotgun" means a smoothbore firearm with a barrel not less than 60.96 centimetres in length, not being an air gun;

"slaughtering instrument" means a firearm which is specially designed or adapted for the instantaneous slaughter of animals or for the instantaneous stunning of animals with a view to slaughtering them;

(3) For the purposes of this Order the length of the barrel of a firearm shall be measured from the muzzle to the point at which the charge is exploded on firing.

(4) For the purposes of this Order a shotgun or an air gun shall be deemed to be loaded if there is ammunition in the chamber or barrel or in any magazine or other device which is in such a position that the ammunition can be fed into the chamber or barrel by the manual or automatic operation of some part of the firearm.

(5) In this Order —
(a)any reference to a firearm certificate includes a reference to a firearm certificate and a shotgun certificate granted under the law in Great Britain and having effect in Northern Ireland by virtue of Article 17; and
(b)any reference to a condition subject to which a firearm certificate is held includes a reference to a condition subject to which a firearm certificate or shotgun certificate is held under the law in Great Britain as that condition has effect in Northern Ireland by virtue of Article 17.

(6) For the purpose of any reference in this Order to the use of any firearm or ammunition for a purpose not authorised by the European weapons directive, the directive shall be taken to authorise the use of a firearm or ammunition as or with a slaughtering instrument and the use of a firearm or ammunition—
(a)for sporting purposes;
(b)for the shooting of pests, or, in the course of carrying on activities in connection with the management of any estate, of other wildlife; and
(c)for competition purposes and target shooting (whether or not for competition purposes).

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