How does buying multiple guns of the same calibre work?

[Rockhopper]

At our home range we log serial numbers etc but when I shoot at Thorpe of another couple of “away” ranges there is nothing bar my signature.

[IainWR]

It is a requirement laid on all Home Office Approved clubs to record the attendance of all members, along with details (by the Guide, as entered on the FAC) of the firearms used. The HO Criteria / Conditions also set out how to deal with visitors, representative teams and so on. If your club isn't doing it they are in breach of the Conditions, which potentially puts the club's Home Office Approved status at risk.

Regarding the original question, it all comes back to the requirement to have a good reason to possess each firearm. I want it isn't sufficient to be good reason, and I need it isn't required. If you can justify it in a way that an ordinary reasonable person would accept, good reason should be established and the authority to acquire should follow. For example, I have two near-identical Target Rifles, mainly so that if something breaks in the middle of a major competition, I can pick up the other rifle and carry on. To justify that as good reason for the second rifle I need to show that I compete at high level on more than just an occasional basis. For a TR shooter that's not difficult, because I keep a plot sheet of every shoot, and I have about 30 years worth of the things in a box in the attic. The club record of attendance and usage would provide, if the police felt the need, an independent corroboration of that record. So far, dropping a pile of plot sheets in front of them and starting a shot-by-shot discussion of the last year or so's activity seems to get agreement fairly quicky - can't imagine why.

[Beena]

Ah ok, yes that makes sense. Thanks for the info. I know the guy who runs my club writes stuff down against my name (for instance ammo I’ve purchased) so I’m guessing he does the same with the club guns I shoot.

@IainWR - thanks for the clarification. I guess our sport needs to be tightly regulated for obvious reasons. It is a shame that we’re not allowed to own firearms because we like them though, rather than it being just a practical reason. I suppose it’s one of the restrictions we have to accept in order to allow us to have access to guns at all.

[Mattnall]

Just as an aside - the usage of each firearm 3 times a year as a minimum is not a legal requirement in any way. It is contained in the Home Office Guide on Firearms Licensing 2016 as below. Our outgoing FEO swore blindly it was a legal requirement at an AGM he attended and he is clearly incorrect !

Did I read somewhere the Guidance was to be given a more legal status (perhaps by it being written in to an amendment that the Guidance must be followed)?
This would have the affect of being able to effectively change the law without any of the usual oversight and procedures?

I can't remember the exact details but I seem to have this little niggling vague memory that this or something similar was talked about over a year ago.

[IainWR]

Just as an aside - the usage of each firearm 3 times a year as a minimum is not a legal requirement in any way. It is contained in the Home Office Guide on Firearms Licensing 2016 as below. Our outgoing FEO swore blindly it was a legal requirement at an AGM he attended and he is clearly incorrect !

Did I read somewhere the Guidance was to be given a more legal status (perhaps by it being written in to an amendment that the Guidance must be followed)?
This would have the affect of being able to effectively change the law without any of the usual oversight and procedures?

I can't remember the exact details but I seem to have this little niggling vague memory that this or something similar was talked about over a year ago.

See Section 55A(4) Firearms Act 1968 as amended, at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/27/section/55A , introduced by the Policing and Crime Act 2017. It requires the police to have regard to the Guidance, which means if they act outside it, they are on dodgy ground.

[Mattnall]

See Section 55A(4) Firearms Act 1968 as amended, at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/27/section/55A , introduced by the Policing and Crime Act 2017. It requires the police to have regard to the Guidance, which means if they act outside it, they are on dodgy ground.

That might be what I was thinking of, Iain, thanks.