Press release decision Flemish government Corona exception for sports shooter’s licence

Temporary measures for sport shooters in the context of the corona crisis

27 March 2020 on the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister Ben Weyts

The emergency decree with measures in the event of a civil emergency with regard to public health gives the Flemish Government the power to develop rules for the suspension, interruption or extension of procedural deadlines or the temporary adjustment of procedural or administrative obligations in various decrees and the implementing decrees in order to ensure maximum legal certainty. In order to obtain a marksman’s licence, the annual validation or the renewal after 5 years of a marksman’s licence, the marksman must prove that he is an active member. An active member is defined as the sport shooter who has been a member of a shooting sports federation for at least six months and who can prove through his sport shooting booklet that he has participated in at least twelve shootings per year, spread over at least twelve days and over at least two trimesters. The National Security Council decided, among other things, to cancel all sports activities from midnight on Friday 13 March. Because the shooting ranges are closed as a result of these corona measures, the condition regarding the shooting sessions may cause problems for some sport shooters. The marksman’s license is also a document with which a weapon can be kept under the federal Weapons Act or is proof of the legal reason for keeping a weapon. Its validity must therefore be indisputable. That is why the Flemish Government is now approving a decree whereby marksmen’s licences that expire in the relevant period up to one month after the expiry of the period can still be declared valid or renewed – exceptionally – even if there are insufficient shootings.

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