The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Well as already pointed out the key reason for this man's troubles is the split with his wife, the Police will take the guns regardless of how amicable it is. As the Police will eventually (after many years in some cases) have to give it all back they will do a full inventory. The Pub Landlord gave it to him to dispose of might be true but it could well be an excuse, considering there is zero way of cross checking how much we buy/reload vs shoot going over your allowances, aside from when we send the certificate back when we run out of space there is probably more of this going on then we freely admit. Certainly many of us have probably gone four or five rounds over when we buy or reload some more due to us miscounting out of the box what we shot last time at the range. But considering I could go to the shop buy my full allowance then go to the range shoot half of it and then go back to the shop and buy my full allowance again taking me well over the line of what I am allowed to possess shows the real flaw in the system!

Personally I think rifle ammunition she be classed on capacity to store rather then a fine limit based on ability to procure a set number of rounds. It would cut down on the large number of technical offences that are being recorded now! So you are ten rounds over a stated limit of lets say 500 rounds in a particular calibre if you go postal the damage you will cause will be little different. Also as I have just pointed out the current regime has no mechanism to stop somebody buying up to their limit each time they go shopping but then undershooting before buying more allowing a build up secretly over time of a vast amount of ammunition.

Recording it on the certificate seems to be a pointless exercise to me anyway, wouldn't a more logical solution be they check the FAC to see if you can procure said ammunition then record that sell alongside your FAC number on some kind of computerised log that the police check on lets say a monthly basis to show up any kind of strange buying patterns (A process that could automated - so the system wring alarm bells if somebody buys a vast amount in a short time frame). That way the certificate is kept clean and tidy, cuts out the hassle of sending it back to the police and the waste of paper. Also the information they get when we post it back doesn't give a proper picture of our shooting and buying patterns. There could be a nice simple barcode on the certificate for them to zap when we purchase and the FAC number to record instead for a manual data entry if the ammunition was purchased at a show with out computer access (which is also increasingly unusual - they all had Chip and Pin at the Shooting show). It could all be made cheaper, simpler and ironically safer by clearing up how the SC and FAC certificates are handled. With my suggestion we could have a counterpart card like the drivers licence meaning we would only need the paper certificate when we were buying a gun and even then you could use the same system as with the ammunition with the barcode being zapped or chip and pin read! Now I am thinking with a chip and pin system we could even have a pin code making the procurement process even safer....I digress my mind is starting to hurt with all the ideas!

smile2

How do they know when you are splitting up with your wife, partner etc ?

Well usually the other party telling the police that they have split or concerned friends is a common one. Another common one is said breaking up couple having a huge vocal row and the neighbours (not necessarily knowing that there are guns in the house) phoning the police as the have concerns. When the police plug the details of the address into their computer all the bells and whistles go off saying there are guns to hand and they tool up quick as possible with the armed response unit in tow!

wtfwtf

Possibly the courts if it's a divorce. I know Avon & Somerset have gone knocking on the doors of those who have sold their house as soon as it goes through the land registry, despite being informed that an RFD had taken temporary possession

If there are valid concerns, then that is one thing. Some divorces are pretty amicable, so no firearms involvement is legal here.

Alas when it comes down to divorces I think the interpretation of local plod plays a huge part in what happens.

I think recording ammo on a FAC is all rather pointless. If you're authorised for a calibre, that should be it. What difference will it make whether you have 1000 rounds or 100,000?

Grampian once authorised me to hold 250100 rounds of 6.5mm ammunition as a result of a typo!

As I said to my FEO, "Even if I managed to buy that much ammo at 150 rounds a time - where am I going to store it!"

Thing is, the police have a duty of protection of the public, but they have to, by law, judge each case on its merits, and not invoke a policy. Revocation of a certificate because of a divorce is not legal unless there is a justifiable concern over public safety. Certainly I know of at least one person who only kept it together on their divorce because they COULD go shooting!

Also WTF do they do when both husband and wife hold an FAC?

Take cover ?