THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
THE GUN LICENCE ACT, 1870 
33 & 34 Viet., c. 57 
By this Act an excise duty of ten shillings becomes payable by any 
person using or carrying a gun who has not at the time of using it a game 
licence in force. Under Section 7 anyone using or carrying a gun without 
a licence except in a dwelling house or the curtilage thereof is liable to a 
penalty of £10. 
A gun is defined by Section 2 to be “ a firearm of any description, or 
air-gun, or any other kind of gun from which a missile can be discharged.” 
The persons who are exempt from having to take out a licence under 
this Act are : — 
(1) Anyone in the naval, military or volunteer service; 
(2) Anyone holding a game licence ; 
(3) Anyone carrying a gun belonging to a person having a game 
licence ; 
(4) An occupier of land, or person authorized by him, for the purpose 
of scaring birds or killing vermin in such land, provided the 
occupier has a licence to kill game or a licence under this Act. 
With regard to “vermin,” it has been settled in Scotland by 
a decision in Lord Advocate y. Young, 1898(62 J.P. 199), that rabbits 
are not vermin. A report of the case will be found in “The Field” 
of April 2, 1898. 
(5) Any gunsmith or his servant carrying a gun in the course of 
his business, or testing it in a place designed for that purpose ; 
(6) A common carrier having charge of a gun in the course of his 
ordinary business. 
Section 9 provides that any officer of Inland Revenue or a constable 
may demand of any person the production of his gun licence or game 
licence, and his name and address, which must be given on demand 
under a penalty of £10. Moreover, in case of refusal the offender is liable 
to be arrested and imprisoned until the penalty is paid. 
Section 10 empowers an officer of Inland Revenue or a constable seeing 
a person using a gun to enter upon the land for the purpose of demanding 
the production of a licence. 
Section 11 provides that anyone who kills game having only a gun 
licence, thereupon forfeits the licence. 
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