Another mod question

[hobbesy]

ok,

Thanks for all the advice, my FEO yesterday stated I needed to fill my licence in when I home loaded my ammunition. I was very cautious of this and also believe him to be wrong but as I wanted him to sign off on another 4 rifles I agreed with him and said I would do it next time.

I'll call the FEO tomorrow and ask him to add two .22 rimfire mod slots to my licence and email the firearms department about writing the air rifle mod straight onto the new licence and see what they say.

[Mattnall]

Sim, Saying that the police insisted you didn't write on it... well, we have all read of time where the police have misread, misinterpreted or plainly made up the law on firearms. Why would they be the ones in the know when three forces I have dealt with in this respect say otherwise.

Maybe it was your force who didn't understand the regulations when you imported a firearm. If you have authority to acquire and your method of acquisition meant it came direct to you as an import then you are the one responsible for the importation, and the notification and the signing on to your FAC.
You force may not realise that and want to micro manage every aspect of your firearms ownership, you can let them but maybe they need educating.

[Mattnall]

ok,

Thanks for all the advice, my FEO yesterday stated I needed to fill my licence in when I home loaded my ammunition.

I can understand you not wanting to rock the boat and agree to whatever they want to get your paperwork processed in a timely manner but eventually this is going to backfire on you.
This is another case of the police not knowing how to implement the law. If you make a couple of rounds every night you will soon fill up your ammo table, send it back to them every couple of months or so and ask for a new one as the table is full. They will soon tell you to not to bother and allow the license to last a full 5 years.
As long as you don't go over your max allowance then you can make as many or as few as you like. Homeloads do not need to be entered on your FAC.

Perhaps a call to the office and ask the licensing office manager what the score is.

[Sim G]

Sim, Saying that the police insisted you didn't write on it... well, we have all read of time where the police have misread, misinterpreted or plainly made up the law on firearms. Why would they be the ones in the know when three forces I have dealt with in this respect say otherwise.

Matt, they insisted I did not enter it because there is no "facility" for you to enter on your FAC or SGC, simples. For the police to OK that, that is down to a policy decision and not a legislative requirement.

[Mattnall]

The facility to enter information on an FAC is there in the form of Table 1 and Table 2.

Sounds like your force have a differing policy to others I have dealt with.

[Sim G]

No, that's not what I was getting at. Perhaps authority or requirement may have been better, not the actual space on the form.

It should not be about "policy". The administration on firearms legislation should be within the guidance as issued by the HO. There are many threads on here where the administration of the firearms act by various police forces, attracts all sorts of criticism and in a lot of cases, rightly so. How can we "demand" that say certificates are renewed in a timely fashion and we will not accept "Oh just carry on as normal, we'll get your FAC to you when we can, we know you have your guns.", but we will accept " Yes, just write that on your own ticket because it suits us".

This has led to massive differences right across the country and some of which, such as with you entering s58 on your own ticket as strictly, unlawful.

[Mattnall]

How about "Just write it on your own ticket as that's the way it should be done"?

There is nothing in the Firearms Act or the HO Guidance that says you shouldn't or must not write on your own FAC. There is nothing that says the police are responsible for writing on the FAC of an imported firearm (and wouldn't the holder of FAC and firearm be in illegal possession if it wasn't written on the FAC? As soon as it arrives write it on, HMCE aren't responsible for writing it on that is the importers' job.)

Not sure where the 'delays in renewals' and 'some forces asking people to keep possession even though their FAC has expired' comes in to play with this other than further evidence of some forces lack of understanding or implementation of the correct procedures.

ETA: I was totally within the law on writing on the S58 item prior to it changing to a S1 item. Please let me know the law I was meant to have broken.