I'm not quite sure you've convincingly shown your working. Throwing antipsychotic medicines into the discussion and leaving it to sit there as some kind of trump card isn't working. For one thing you can get pretty much anything online these days. For another people on such drugs are probably not the sort of people engaged in shooting sports - just keeping some kind of life together is hard enough for them.Alan D wrote:Unless I'm behind the times Dark skys, you can't buy antipsychotic medications and the like, across the counter at boots these days?
The old system meant that they relied on people telling the truth about medical conditions, I will wager medical records were seldom checked...
It's simply another tool to keep the loony tunes away from Firearms, it just needs to be implemented correctly.
Any law abiding citizen who qualifies for an FAC, has absolutely zero to worry about quite frankly.
A 'correctly implemented' system makes the FEO's job easier and our sport safer and has the added bonus of keeping a closer check on the Rambo element, who run round the forest with a .308 shooting deer by my house!
I saw a guy a while back who looked like Vietnam LRRP reenactor who got lost on his way home from War and Piece , complete with a camo job on his remmy 700.... Too much time watching Deer Hunter me thinks....
The new system relies on people telling the truth to their doctor. It relies on people actually knowing they have a problem and seeking treatment. I'll wager a lot of people haven't seen their doctor because they are asymptomatic. So the doctor has nothing to go on.
I wonder how many people, regardess of their job or hobby, are fully frank with their doctor about how much they like a drink, for example. Not that I regard someone who enjoys a nip of rum every night as having a problem, or a few beers every night, for that matter. But in this finger-wagging age I bet plenty regard the question as an unwarranted intrusion and lie.
The moment some doc has the gross impertinence to say "and how much do you drink?" Wary types start to lie. 'Just the odd tipple before evening song.'
I'm not sure the Vietnam reenactor annecdote has any relevance. Actually, I'm totally sure it doesn't. Some guy whose hobby you don't share dresses the part and you took a dim view. Says more about your attitude than his. I expect you have people in your street who would wonder 'why does that nutter (you) have all those guns. Nobody needs guns.'
You're perfectly at liberty to accept the 'if it saves one life' spin. The danger is, however, that soon they'll want to prove you're worthy and will find it unreasonable for you not to submit to a urine sample during your next application. Then maybe a pyschiatric report. Then what? A character assessment from your boss? Your neighbours? And why not? They know you better than your doc who might only see you every other year or so.
I just wish the authorities would spend the same level of attention focussing on actual criminals as they do on the the law-abiding.