Is it too easy to get a shotgun certificate in the UK?

[TheTallOakTrees]

I have just watched a story on the BBC where a lady suggested it was too easy to obtain a shotgun certificate.
I will say I have no knowledge on this subject but assume there are people on MN that do?
Is it too easy to obtain one?

I know a lot of people who have shotguns. Without exception they are all incredibly responsible with them, adhere firmly to guidelines and are serious about gun safety. The license isn't particularly easy to obtain.

I know three people who have a shotgun, as ai grew up in an area where Rabbiting is a popular past time.

The first, my ex next door neighbour (who used it for hunting). He has convictions for violence and has hit his wife in the past. The second, a friend of my brothers, actually lost his shotgun license for a short amount of time after he held his girlfriend at gunpoint, high on coke and the swat team had to be called out. Unbelievably, he got his license and gun back just weeks later! I only hope the police will revisit the decision post- plymouth.

The third guy was my mothers frienda son (dead now unfortunately - not gun related). I don't think he was violent but he was arrested a few times due to drug possession (recreational).

So yes, I think it is too easy to get a shot gun license. There should be an absolute ban on anyone with a violent conviction imo and a higher bar set for what is considered a 'good reason'. Licenses should be reviewed frequently.

There isn’t a single set of procedures. Where I live (quite rural in some areas) the clay pigeon ranges are desperate for regular members and offer to store guns on behalf of members who can’t meet the police criteria for storage. In theory you should return them when you’re done but there have been instances where members forget or the storage house has been closed early, and nothing is ever done about it. I bet something will now, though.

My husband has a shot gun license and it wasn’t easy at all. He had two police officers interview him for around 90 minutes and he had to know everything from how a cartridge is made up to gun safety etc if he wasn’t knowledgeable he wouldn’t have got it. The fire arm officer is a local chap and keeps in contact regularly. I am now applying for mine so I can shoot independently from my husband if I wish as well as take our 9 year old to his shooting lessons as we have just got him his own gun (he obviously has no access to it and can only use it with extremely heavy supervision). It is not an easy process and a lot of checks are done. We have a friend who didn’t record something on his gun license and they come down on you like a ton of bricks for even a small administrative mistake (rightly so). They check the house and how you keep them to make sure everything is secure. I am not sure what more they can do. If you ban guns are you going to ban kitchen knives and cars too?

I don't really know how easy it is to get them here in the UK. But America are forever having shootings and nothing is fine about guns. It's probably be the same here

@Isandriena

I don't really know how easy it is to get them here in the UK. But America are forever having shootings and nothing is fine about guns. It's probably be the same here

If you read others comments you’ll see it’s not “easy”.

If someone really wants to shoot someone, they will get a gun without licence. It is better to licenec and police what you can.
Knifes are overall worse and cause much more death🤷🏻

@Hont1986

if he couldn't have a gun, he'd have used something else

If he'd used something else, that little girl might be alive.

See this is actually wrong. It wasn't just the little girl who died. This is attempt of emotional "blackmail". "Little girl" sounds much more "oh no!" than "people". I don't like that. 5 people were killed, people shouldn't single out one for their pr appeal

I don't think you understood the post, the point was that if that man had not had access to a gun, and had grabbed a kitchen knife instead, then her father might, might have been able to fight back and protect her. You can't fight back against a shotgun.

@Hont1986

I don't think you understood the post, the point was that if that man had not had access to a gun, and had grabbed a kitchen knife instead, then her father might, might have been able to fight back and protect her. You can't fight back against a shotgun.

No, I understood the post. Including the fact that you are just using the girl to push your point forward.

I just want to add that a doctor's 'assessment' isn't required for a gun licence. The GP will confirm/deny if there are any known issues in the person's history that may be relevant.
Eg. 'has the person ever been diagnosed with x?'
'there is no history of a diagnosis of x'
The GPs don't 'assess' the person to see if they are fit to hold a licence. They just share information as requested by the police.
If a person hadn't sought medical help for their mental health problems then the GP would be unaware of them.
Unfortunately, some people may not seek help for health problems if they are worried it may affect their gun licence.

My husband has a shotgun license, as well as a firearms certificate. He got them both at the same time so I’m not entirely clear which bit of the checking was related to the shotgun or firearms, or if they do the same for each

Will say that I didn’t think it was easy to obtain at all though. Fully aware it varies by county

@Florin

My husband has a shot gun license and it wasn’t easy at all. He had two police officers interview him for around 90 minutes and he had to know everything from how a cartridge is made up to gun safety etc if he wasn’t knowledgeable he wouldn’t have got it. The fire arm officer is a local chap and keeps in contact regularly. I am now applying for mine so I can shoot independently from my husband if I wish as well as take our 9 year old to his shooting lessons as we have just got him his own gun (he obviously has no access to it and can only use it with extremely heavy supervision). It is not an easy process and a lot of checks are done. We have a friend who didn’t record something on his gun license and they come down on you like a ton of bricks for even a small administrative mistake (rightly so). They check the house and how you keep them to make sure everything is secure. I am not sure what more they can do. If you ban guns are you going to ban kitchen knives and cars too?

That sounds really thorough.

I am not against shot gun licences at all, I just wondered how easy it was to get in the UK.
The fact that we have so few deaths from gun related incidents is good. The US is a completely different ballgame and a huge number of deaths , accidents or murder and school shootings. Extremely sad.