New Gun Licence And Ownership Restrictions

[Wildfisher]

Inevitable now after the recent outrage in Plymouth. Politicians  are now openly talking about there being no justification  for anyone other farmers, land mangers etc to own guns.

Interesting times we live in.  :?

[Laxdale]

Usual bollox.
Thankfully Scotland has different firearms laws (I think).
There is almost no crime anywhere in the UK with legally owned guns, but there will always be the occasional nutjob about.
The fault lies with who gave the guy his guns back, not the current laws on firearms.

[Wildfisher]

Same rules for the whole UK I think, which obviously makes sense for guns. The SNP had to get the law changed in Westminster before they had their "fair and balanced"  air gun purge.   :roll: Probably a good thing if it is UK actually as Sturgeon never misses a chance to gold plate any new UK law and the Scottish version always ends up wearing a draconian kilt.

[Inchlaggan]

Same rules for the whole UK I think, which obviously makes sense for guns. The SNP had to get the law changed in Westminster before they had their "fair and balanced"  air gun purge.   :roll: Probably a good thing if it is UK actually as Sturgeon never misses a chance to gold plate any new UK law and the Scottish version always ends up wearing a draconian kilt.

Nope. Hand guns are not banned in Northern Ireland. You can own one for "personal protection".
Love the notion of the Polis looking through the soshal meeja accounts of some of the gamekeepers I know when it comes for firearm licence renewal.
Plenty of guns (mine) held at a gun club/range, wholly reliant on club security preventing me from walking out the door with them.
Didn't anybody watch the Modern Pentathlon, Trap Shooting, Biathlon etc at the Olympics?

[Wildfisher]

Good point NI has different rules.

As far as the Olympics go last time I watched any of that stuff Daley Thompson was in the decathlon  :lol:

[burnie]

I was told that the air rifle licence was not what the police asked for, it was purely political I was told when I went to get mine.

[caorach]

Good point NI has different rules.

As far as the Olympics go last time I watched any of that stuff Daley Thompson was in the decathlon  :lol:

The rules in NI are, in one sense more strict, and in another allow for more freedom.

You can own handguns in NI not just for PPW (personal protection weapon) but also for target shooting, IPSC and that sort of thing. Many private citizens own considerable numbers of handguns, one chap I know had 13 if I recall correctly. Also in NI the police don't check land as they do in the rest of the UK so once you get a certificate it is up to you to decide where is safe, to be honest this is reasonable as any bit of land is only as safe as the person doing the shooting so the English system of the police looking at bits of ground is mad. By default the police in NI tend to authorise 1000 rounds of ammo for each firearm - so the chap I knew with the 13 handguns had several other firearms and had 17,000 rounds of ammo on his certificate. This makes life easier for everyone whereas in England and Scotland they usually put crazy restrictions on the amount of ammo a person may hold.

I can't recall a single shooting or mass shooting in NI with a legally held firearm, there may have been a few suicides that involved PPWs but I'm not sure. The stats on PPWs are really quite remarkable and I think it comes down to about about 1 person in 10 in NI carrying a handgun.

On the other side basically everything in NI goes on a full firearms certificate including shotguns and air rifles. The significance of this is that you have to demonstrate a need to have the firearm as opposed to the police needing to demonstrate a reason why you shouldn't have it, which I think is the case with a shotgun certificate in the rest of the UK. The NI certificate is viewed, for some reason, as the "gold standard certificate" in the UK and so an NI certificate holder can take guns to the rest of the UK without needing any further paperwork, other than checking them in at the ports. Certificate holders coming the other way have a lot of paperwork to do. 

[Wildfisher]

Confirmed this morning that the police will be checking social media of gun owners. Members of the "other" fishing forum might want to consider deleting their accounts there if they still fancy a bit of shooting.  :lol:

[Wildfisher]

Latest talk now is making shotguns subject to the same restrictions as rifles. In other word classifying them as firearms.

[tomcatin]

Many private citizens own considerable numbers of handguns, one chap I know had 13 if I recall correctly. Also in NI the police don't check land as they do in the rest of the UK so once you get a certificate it is up to you to decide where is safe, to be honest this is reasonable as any bit of land is only as safe as the person doing the shooting so the English system of the police looking at bits of ground is mad. By default the police in NI tend to authorise 1000 rounds of ammo for each firearm - so the chap I knew with the 13 handguns had several other firearms and had 17,000 rounds of ammo on his certificate. This makes life easier for everyone whereas in England and Scotland they usually put crazy restrictions on the amount of ammo a person may hold.

I don't know about crazy restrictions ......... but quite apart from being authorised to hold 17,000 rounds, who the hell in NI or elsewhere need 13 handguns??