A five-year firearms or shotgun certificate currently costs £50, yet police forces estimate they cost around £200 each to process the paperwork and ensure the guns are being stored safely.
Well, yes, but then, as we saw with
the number of people they send to handle a drunk, they may not be the most efficient bunch of people in the world.
Chief Constable Marsh said: “Fees levied to administer firearms licensing have not changed in more than ten years and it is recognised that they are not sufficient to cover the costs associated with the process.
“As such we do have a proposal submitted to the Home Office to increase fees in licensing.”
Couldn't you just cut your costs? Well, of course not. This is the public sector, after all..
Sporting gun users immediately said they feared the move was a backdoor attempt to cut the number of gun owners in the country.
Yup! I bet
EssexHunter and
Bucko have their eyes on this one.
Mike Yardley, spokesman for the Shooting Sports Trust, said lawful gun owners were already tired of being confused with criminals and said a cost hike would hit young shooters hardest.
…
He said the licensing system worked well, but said that the great majority of shooting deaths involved illegal weapons, rather than licensed ones.
Why should the police care about that, though?
14 comments:
Yep. A blatant attempt to price the not so rich out of the sport.
They can't ban shotguns or even restrict them further because the royal family and every lord, lady and titled person in the country use them.
They can price the rabble out of the sport though.
I tell you what though, if they do bump up the cost I'll live on beans on toast for a month to pay for it before I give in to them
The BASCs line on this is that increasing the fees will simply reward and encourage police inefficiency, and I agree with them.
There are forces who manage to issue renewals and new licenses quickly with a minimum of mistakes. There are other forces who mis-register / lose registrations for thousands of gun purchases / ownership transfers. There are forces who can process a 1-1 variation (I have a .223 with a moderator, but I want a different make / model of the same calibre) in days and others who take months.
There are forces where the FEOs try to add all sorts of conditions not supported by any of the existing acts and make applicants jump through hoops. There are inconsistent rulings made all the time that are overturned on appeal (showing that they were not valid to start with) that cost money.
Putting the prices up won't change this.
Putting a consistent process in place across all forces in all regions would do more to reduce their costs than any fees increase will.
Of course the obvious answer is to go French, you buy a fusion du chasse in a sports shop like a fishing rod. But that's too easy. Here in Northern Ireland you need a license for an air rifle too, but if you are in a shooting club you can buy handguns.
This attempt to rase the cost of getting a permit is nothing more than an attempt to disarm completely the population.
I wonde why they would want to do that?
Good for a festive laugh were the proposal to fall out of Underworld Xmas crackers.
"...they may not be the most efficient bunch of people in the world."
Masterly stretching of English understatement, Julia.
Yes, and the French system (and Spanish too) you can go and hunt on anyones land unless they specifically post notices around their property and in the town hall saying you can't.
None of this "Private fishing" bollox either. Even lakes and ponds provided they're filled with a natural running water source.
A blatant attempt to price the not so rich out of the sport.
I'm not sure it is as thought out as that to be honest.
This is just more dipping into our wallets to fund the lifestyle to which they've become accustomed by Cop Corp Industries (aka ACPO).
Personally, I believe the service should be free. It's the police/government that insist on the licensing scheme not the gun owners. If they are sincere that it's to protect the public then, like their other 'public services', this too should be part of what we're already paying them for anyway. What next... Hand-cuff hire when arrested? 999 calls charged by the minute?
I'm getting mightily fed up with the police (and especially their commercial operation) requesting and then imposing ever increasing regulation, registration and licensing, and then holding out their hand for payment.
So ACPO; no more ransom notes from you until you open up your own books.
(Note: Comment edited to remove excessive use of the words: "Thieving bastards")
I thought guns were banned in Britain, any way?
Teut. it's only handguns and machine guns that are banned here, and semi- autos other than .22rf and shotguns.
We used to be able to buy a shotgun certificate from the post office like you would a dog or tv licence.
Back in those days with where guns were freely available, I dont remember any wild west shoot outs on the streets.
In America, there would appear to be a correlation between mass shootings in places like schools and shopping malls which are all "Gun free zones".
For some reason I've yet to hear of any shootings at the local range where everyone is packing, I wonder why?
Every summer I go to "Game fairs" which are wall to wall guns, hunting dogs and knives. When you enter, there's no metal detectors or handbag searches. 1000a of people attend these, and usually little to no police presence, no thefts, rapes, drunks (Yes alcohol is available) or mass shootings.
I wonder why?
ACPO wind me up as well.They don't speak for or represent the rank and file.
Jaded
Having ruled out loyalty, respect and honesty...can you lay claim to less admirable human qualities, WC Jaded?
"They can't ban shotguns or even restrict them further because the royal family and every lord, lady and titled person in the country use them.
They can price the rabble out of the sport though."
Working as intended... :/
"The BASCs line on this is that increasing the fees will simply reward and encourage police inefficiency..."
Delete 'police' and replace with ANY govt 'service'...
"Yes, and the French system (and Spanish too) you can go and hunt on anyones land unless they specifically post notices around their property..."
Interesting! Is that the same in the US, too?
"Personally, I believe the service should be free. It's the police/government that insist on the licensing scheme not the gun owners."
Well, yes. But realistically, that's never going to happen.
"Back in those days with where guns were freely available, I dont remember any wild west shoot outs on the streets."
Didn't the police once rely on their being armed citizens to assist in manhunts?
There was a bank robbed by (leftist) anarchists in Tottenham Court Rd in 1907 (if memory serves)--the local cop shop had a gun cabinet but it had not been opened in so many years that it had rusted up and they could not open it. So they went into the street and shouted out for help from armed passers-by. More than a dozen people stepped forward--some lent the police their firearms and others went along posse style and the robbers were run to earth. After a brief fire-fight they gave up.
The past, as they say, is another (and in many ways better) country.
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