Air-gun Licencing now for England.

[dazzler]

Out of interest, which radio station?

If it's radio 4 or 5,maybe something in it for us to worry about. If it's talkSport, relax. They talkShite 24 hours a day.

ATB

Bobby

[Bosun]

I've thought (like gdavison) for years that the RFD ought to be more pro-active in explaining the law and the Air Gun owners responsibilities. Even just handing the new Air Gun owner the Home Office leaflet (AIR WEAPONS: A brief guide to safety), or the BASC leaflet (AIR RIFLE SAFETY IN ENGLAND AND WALES. A code of practice) would be a good start.

Also, I have to agree with FPoole that cats should be licensed and kept under control. Why on earth should someone else's domestic cat be permitted to dump in, and dig up my flower beds?

[gdavison]

Also, I have to agree with FPoole that cats should be licensed and kept under control. Why on earth should someone else's domestic cat be permitted to dump in, and dig up my flower beds?

We have 4 Bengal cats and they live indoors .. we researched this in depth before they arrived with us and as long as they have plenty to play with chase and spend time with, they don't care if that is what they have from being a kitten. Our first cat which lived to 17 years old was an outdoor moggie and in that time he was "runover" twice, shot twice, had numerous scraps with other cats leading to various vet visits .. keeping them indoors is better for all .. them, neighbours, birds, frogs etc

[brianTM]

Criminalise airguns and only criminal will have them!!!!

[robertt]

Unfortunately there is a human sub species out there with using air weapons either bought with ill gotten gains or stolen who don't give damn about who or what they shoot.

No amount of advice , education or legislation will alter their behaviour.
But in the big picture , from folk looking from the outside in , they are classed as air rifle shooters and once again we will probably end up licenced and suffering as a result.

Ironically the low life scum don't bother with licences so it won't bother them , only us , again.

[TenMetrePeter]

Anyone in Scotland have any experience how it works?

[Bosun]

It would indeed be interesting to hear from someone in Scotland. Although I suspect, all that it has done, is inconvenience and cost the legitimate and law abiding shooter, and given the Scottish Police an additional burden they could well do without. As previously said, what chance is there of the low life complying?

If it was a scheme to gather votes, did it work I wonder?

[Archer50]

It depends what you mean by 'works'. There are still long backlogs of people who applied after 31 October 2016 but before 1 January 2017 and no one seems able to be explain why some new applicants get their licences (or not) so much quicker than others. The average seems to be about 4 to 6 months. As far as I know around 20,000 applications have been received, and they are still coming in at a steady rate, especially from people whose SGC/FAC's have run out, so they now need a separate AWC. And please no one mention the b******ks about 500,000 airguns in Scotland, which was just a scare figure pulled out of thin air with absolutely no basis in fact.

About 1% of applications are being refused, mainly for medical reasons (especially uncontrolled diabetes and depression), but also on the 'unfit person' condition for people with dodgy criminal and anti-social records. I know some appeals are in the pipeline, but I haven't heard any outcomes. Out of interest, I don't know of anyone whose referees or permissions have been checked, but several people have specifically been refused permission to shoot in their garden, and these have been checked.

So, in a sense, it's working, but what it's achieving is anybody's guess ...

Alan

[Bosun]

Hello Alan,

When I said "did it work", what I meant was, did it gather any votes? As many people seem to think this was the intention. Nothing to do with addressing air gun crime in Scotland, which we are led to believe was on the decrease anyway.

[Archer50]

Who knows if it helped their vote, but given that they lost 21 of their 57 seats in the last general election and have lost proportionately more in local elections it doesn't seem very likely.