well im annoyed

[Mike357]

So the theme appears to be do not do anything that attracts the interest of would be criminals and scumbags in case they target you. Should I refrain from ever buying an expensive car, a big house or maybe I should not wear expensive watches in public and heaven forbid my wife should wear any kind of jewellery. It seems that once again, as shooters, we are going to lurk around in the shadows because we choose to do something that others don't like or is attractive to criminals. Shooting will only become more marginalised if we adopt that attitude. I'm a shooter and proud of it.

[HALODIN]

That's the way I see it. Either it's legal or it's not.

[Charlotte the flyer]

I'm thinking the key part was the neighbour - someone "of interest" to Special Branch or whoever already - being pictured with a lawfully held firearm.

However, the police answer should not have been to jump to conclusions, revoke tickets and attempt a prosecution based on hot air and alarmism. A quiet chat would have been far more sensible, along the lines of "please don't let your neighbour have access, even supervised, to your firearms, and we would appreciate it if you didn't mention this conversation to him. But do it again and we'll come down on you like a ton of bricks".

OK, so devils advocate: You've just come back in and you're cleaning your rifles in the kitchen when your neighbour that you've know for 30 years knocks on and asks for a cup of sugar. Are you saying that you're breaking the law by letting them in?

[Dougan]

So the theme appears to be do not do anything that attracts the interest of would be criminals and scumbags in case they target you. Should I refrain from ever buying an expensive car, a big house or maybe I should not wear expensive watches in public and heaven forbid my wife should wear any kind of jewellery. It seems that once again, as shooters, we are going to lurk around in the shadows because we choose to do something that others don't like or is attractive to criminals. Shooting will only become more marginalised if we adopt that attitude. I'm a shooter and proud of it.

Absolutely...and not only does 'lurking in the shadows' make it look like we've got something to hide, but we simply shouldn't have to.

Also from what I've seen, most of the robberys where guns are taken, it's because of their value and not because criminals want to use them (maybe the coppers on here could give some more info on that?) - We obviously have to take our responsibility as FAC holders seriously, and use discretion, but we shouldn't have to live double lives.

[Dougan]

I'm thinking the key part was the neighbour - someone "of interest" to Special Branch or whoever already - being pictured with a lawfully held firearm.

However, the police answer should not have been to jump to conclusions, revoke tickets and attempt a prosecution based on hot air and alarmism. A quiet chat would have been far more sensible, along the lines of "please don't let your neighbour have access, even supervised, to your firearms, and we would appreciate it if you didn't mention this conversation to him. But do it again and we'll come down on you like a ton of bricks".

OK, so devils advocate: You've just come back in and you're cleaning your rifles in the kitchen when your neighbour that you've know for 30 years knocks on and asks for a cup of sugar. Are you saying that you're breaking the law by letting them in?

I'd like to know that too; as we're good friends with our neighbors and are totally open about the guns - It would be daft to try and hide the fact we have guns, as they can see us loading the car with them on a regular basis - They come round quite regularly, and if they come round to see my folks while I'm bringing a rifle back in from the garage it doesn't bother them at all; in fact one of our neighbors is quite interested (I think he'd like to have a go), and he's been in the garage when we've been loading...

...now if that's wrong (?) we'll stop being so open....though I think it's only fair to our neighbor...he now knows why we spend so much time in the garage, and what that strange humming noise is (the tumbler).....he's quite happy with the reason being that we're shooters and loaders; but if we were all 'secret-squirrel' about it, what would he think...?

[meles meles]

Be open and honest, skwirrel. You are not at fault.

[Dougan]

I hope you're right mate (and thank you) - I play by the rules, but it irks me sometimes just how discrete you have to be as an FAC holder...I work for a large company so can't be totally open (the numbers increase the risk), so although my ex-boss was a referee on my last renewal, if I'm asked in general company what I'm doing at the weekend I'll say 'I going to see some friends in Surrey' rather than 'I'm away for a shooting competition'...

[meles meles]

After some ooman work colleagues asked why didn't have a picture radio*, hadn't got a clue what x factor was, and what we did with our spare time, we organised a day out for them to try shooting. It took quite a bit of organising, obtaining permissions and sorting out an approved guest day at an appropriate range, but they enjoyed a great barbecue and the opportunity to try out everything from a .22 LR plinker via a black powder pistol to a .375 H&H efferlump gun. Several of them are now going through the NRA probationary process to acquire their own FACs and all of them are very much pro-shooting.





*TV

[David TS]

I'm thinking the key part was the neighbour - someone "of interest" to Special Branch or whoever already - being pictured with a lawfully held firearm.

However, the police answer should not have been to jump to conclusions, revoke tickets and attempt a prosecution based on hot air and alarmism. A quiet chat would have been far more sensible, along the lines of "please don't let your neighbour have access, even supervised, to your firearms, and we would appreciate it if you didn't mention this conversation to him. But do it again and we'll come down on you like a ton of bricks".

OK, so devils advocate: You've just come back in and you're cleaning your rifles in the kitchen when your neighbour that you've know for 30 years knocks on and asks for a cup of sugar. Are you saying that you're breaking the law by letting them in?

No, but letting them sit with bits of your gun which they take photos of, which end up on the internet, is just a liiiiitle bit dumb .

[David TS]

i made sure my mum understands if they come to the door again unless they have a warrant tell them where to shove it

they left these cards so i will be ringing them in the morning and finding out what they want and why the hell didnt they wait till i was there . otherwise im gonna sleep with my mossber 500 under my pillow for the next few days

I have just spent fifteen or so minutes of my life, which I won't get back, reading this thread in its entirety.

I have to ask the OP this question - if I were your FEO, reading this thread (and they do............), and reading your rant, I would perhaps be telling myself that when I come to see you I maybe ought to have an extended chat about your attitude and suitability to hold firearms.

In just the same way that is not a good idea to post clues about your address etc as mentioned earlier in the thread, equally it is probably not a good idea to have a rant on a public (for all intents and purposes) forum about how mad you are with the police about the situation.

If it were me, I certainly would have not posted it in the same way, or maybe instead post a factual and emotionless account of the situation AFTER it was resolved................