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

BASC suppport these new medicals / gp tag crap

One question. If it is not for GPs to inform when a person, for whatever reason, develops debilitating physical or sinks into a period of mental health issues, where the appropriateness of owning a firearm becomes questionable, then who does?

Sim G wrote:One question. If it is not for GPs to inform when a person, for whatever reason, develops debilitating physical or sinks into a period of mental health issues, where the appropriateness of owning a firearm becomes questionable, then who does?

It is a really difficult situation, maybe the local club will raise the flag. However no matter the system in place it is worthless if no one sees the person who has a problem. The problem escalates in silence and behind closed doors until 6 months later the person commits an awful offence with his/her lawfully held firearms.

...or with his/her meat cleaver.
...or with his/her baseball bat.
...or with his/her samurai sword.
...or with whatever cleaning agent there is in the kitchen cupboard.

Frenzied, spree attacks with edged or blunt weapons have occurred, but their victim tally does not generally get to the levels of a spree shooter.

Why are GPs not considered to be suitable referees for an FAC/SGC. It may not say it on the forms, however as I understand it from a conversation with an FEO, they may not accept a GP as a referee!

In todays age is a GP actually "QUALIFIED" to give such a specialist opinion.

Some may be - others may not!

I would reckon in a court that would be the FIRST question a GP would be asked - his qualifications.

Yes there ARE people who are mentally unstable and should not have access to anything but this is just another backdoor way of stopping ownership and should not be deemed acceptable unless their is good reason to ask the question. Surely a lot of thee issues should be / could be spotted at club and probationery stages?

It worked OK with Hamilton and Ryan where clubs raised the alarm did they not - only the warnings were not heeded.

Sim G wrote:Frenzied, spree attacks with edged or blunt weapons have occurred, but their victim tally does not generally get to the levels of a spree shooter.

That depends on which country you are looking at.

christel wrote:

Sim G wrote:Frenzied, spree attacks with edged or blunt weapons have occurred, but their victim tally does not generally get to the levels of a spree shooter.

That depends on which country you are looking at.

Japan:

Akihababra

Osaka

China:

Railway

The whole question of asking a GPs opinion on Firearms owning suitabilty is flawed I think.

On the Disabilty side. If somebody becomes physically disabled and cant take part in shooting sports he is hardly then going to commit a serious crime, this disabilty could be resolved at renewal time.

On the Mental side. Well where do you start? Many people attend with various stages of depression, many many times this is simply the result of consuming Alcohol, after all Alcohol is a depressant, it doesn't make them want to shoot a bunch of people.

OK if they are taking Alcohol to excess that is a different matter, but how is the GP going to measure this? The usual way is a Liver test called a Gamma GT Test which is a good indicator of an Alcoholic but it can also be just an indication of Liver disease from other causes.

The other indication of serious mental illness is are they taking anti depression medicine, but anti depression medicine is also prescribed for things like restless leg syndrome, bulimia and general pain killer etc.

As has been said many times, the GP may just be anti gun and want them all banned.

To be sure if you are a gun owner you do not want to go to the Doc with many problems.

Forget the GP and leave it up to Club Members and the FEO.

What is the medical definition of an alcoholic?

Someone who drinks more than their GP!