Stuart Farr - Bumper Stickers

ONE can’t help but admire the Americans for the ways in which they express themselves. In some contexts it can even help us to understand their humour—and even how they collectively think as a society.

Take car bumper stickers for example. Us “stiff ” Brits (as the Americans sometimes refer to us) don’t display them all that much—unless it’s to hide a scratch or cover some rust, show off a football team or warn of onboard children. Over in the States, however, bumper stickers are much more commonplace and opinionated. It’s one method they use to express themselves.

“Keep honking… I’m reloading” is one of my favourites. Others equally speak volumes about their gun culture, such as “Driving a hybrid means I have more money for ammo!” Or what about “Forget the dog… Beware of the owner”?

I appreciate that it’s becoming a cliché to say we live in strange times. However, I would suggest that the past few weeks have been as peculiar as any that have gone before. For me, it all started when I fell down a cattle grid—in the pitch dark and amidst tempestuous rainfall. (I laugh now but at the time it really did hurt!) With a sore leg slowing me down for a day or two, I happened to be channel flicking and came across what I now refer to as the “not so Wintry Olympics”. Keen to watch a bit of shooting on telly, I was amazed by what I discovered. Did you know that all the snow and ice was completely artificial? I didn’t! Even the cross-country biathlon course had been fabricated from millions of gallons of precious water, contaminated with an abundance of chemicals to make it freeze at higher temperatures. One can only begin to imagine the environmental cost, but even so, the competitors did not appear to fancy it too much either. Yes, it provided a consistent surface but the payoff, apparently, was a greater prevalence of compacted ice (rather than snow) and much higher risks of injury. What’s the point of a Winter Olympics without real snow? Where’s the next one going to be held? Qatar?

More channel flicking gave me cause to pause momentarily on the PM’s reported responses to Partygate, and a “unique” circumstance of the PM’s home also being his workplace was being alleged. Excuse me? It so happens my home has been my workplace too for practically two years now, as it has been for many thousands of others. Hardly “unique”, I’d say. Seriously, where have you been?

Feeling of positivity

Finally, a bit of sanity did arrive in the form of the Great British Shooting Show, an event which I was so pleased to be able to attend and hobble around. To be fair, it’s hats off to all of you, because as I hopped around and engaged with many of the exhibitors, the feeling of positivity (admittedly mixed with some relief) was palpable amongst those I spoke with. Bouncing back and growth were the themes of the show for me, and a decent smattering of relative newcomers to the sector added a much welcome new dimension to the whole event. I extend my heartfelt thanks to all those of you who welcomed me to your stands and so generously shared your news and experiences.

The Great British Shooting Show brought to mind how things have changed in the last two years. One of them I particularly noticed is how much, as a trade, you have become internet savvy. Online presences were much better communicated and yes, while the hard copy brochures were still there to misdoubt, appropriate, email and website addresses and social media presences were much more obvious and available than ever before.

All this comes in recognition, I believe, that shoppers increasingly use the internet and mobile apps to engage with retailers. With that in mind, it has now become an important part of your business routines to check and update your online presences to ensure they are properly compliant and resistant to complaint. Here are a few brief pointers to remind you what to look out for:

The information you display regarding pricing, refunds, cancellations and product quality must be clear and precise, because there’s a whole host of consumer-based protections in place if you are selling online. Failure to comply with these could result in time-consuming investigations or, in some cases, prosecutions and fines.

Your website must also be GDPR-compliant. You need to display your policies in relation to the use of cookies and explain how any data is collected (if at all) and for what purpose. A privacy policy must also be displayed.

When selling goods or services, it is strongly recommended you have a robust and professionally drafted set of terms and conditions. Doing so will greatly assist in reducing business risk when selling online. Again, these must comply with consumer protection legislation and so need to be fair and reasonable. They should include appropriate limitations of liability, disclaimers and clarifications.

Intellectual property

Protect your intellectual property. Whether you have used consultants, employees or web designers as part of your strategy for business development, be sure that any intellectual property rights are owned by you and not them. The same, of course, also goes for your products, inventions, trademarks and trade secrets. They all need proper protection.

It is now impossible to escape the reality of cybercrime, and so behind all excellent online presences there should be equally robust anti-fraud measures in place. Be aware that in respect of e-commerce transactions (meaning, online card payments), retailers with an online presence need to be implementing strong customer authentication measures by 14 March 2022. Card issuers previously warned that, from 18 January 2022, they will have already started to decline some non-compliant transactions. If in visit the Financial Conduct Authority website for information.

As regards technology generally, the legal system has always been slow to react to change. Having said that, Brexit has had an accelerating effect on the situation and as the UK begins to find its feet in the broader commercial sphere, one can expect there to be a divergence away from EU-based principles and the creation of new ones. The danger here is that legal developments may come to us from more “left field”. I mean that in the sense that new legal developments in completely different sectors could begin to permeate sideways into the gun trade. A degree of peripheral vision is going to be essential as we move forward.

Now that we have cut our ties with Europe, one also has to be mindful of the influence of legal developments creeping from across the Atlantic. The highly publicised issues for the US gun manufacturer Remington convey a salutary message. Even though, thankfully, the court-related events which determined that company’s liability would be an obscure rarity over here, worldwide public legal decisions of that nature both can and do influence public opinions. They provide fuel for those wishing to stoke a particular debate on what laws we should be adopting ourselves. Our respective societies are not a million miles apart and over the decades one can see the influences we’ve had on each other in both directions.

Which perhaps brings me to a final bumper sticker, as seen on the back of many American vehicles. It simply reads, “If it weren’t for the guns, we’d all be British.” GTN