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

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....

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.

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.

Alan D wrote:The base point is that it's a good idea if your family doctor writes a letter confirming you are a suitable person to possess Firearms.

Assuming you have a long-serving family doctor. Turns out mine went to work in the Scottish Highlands about 4 years ago... Eventually changed practices to one where I now live. Been there once to have a little lump on my todger checked out. That practice doesn't even assign you a doctor, you just see who is available.

Alan D wrote:
Any law abiding citizen who qualifies for an FAC, has absolutely zero to worry about quite frankly.

yeah, good luck with that thought, it might be true if you were in control of what was happening, but when it's left to a gp you never see, not wanting to sign off because they don't know you, and no other route round it, I'm sure you'll have zero to worry about.

as for rambo, who the hell cares? as long as he was being safe, where is the issue? I don't get this compunction with what clothes people wear.

Quarters wrote:I've been shooting now for 15 years. For the whole of that time people have been saying that there is a grand plan to stop us shooting.

But in those 15 years everybody at my club has shot whenever they want, they've bought whatever they want, they've sold whatever they want. New members have freely joined and bought rifles of various calibres, black powder pistols, shotguns.

... just not semi-automatic, centre-fire rifles.

Or handguns.

If there is a grand plan, it's not working.

There is a grand plan and you're clearly ignoring it.

The whole medical thing is an arse covering exercise and a reassuring pat on the head of the sheeple, plain and simple, and the only argument is who has to pay for it.

Before this new 'mandatory' medical report thing came in everyone had to tick a little box on every grant/renewal form to say that they consent to their medical information being shared with the police. The police could request it for any reason and your GP could send it if they had any concerns about you, and it was in their interest to send it if there was.

The only sticking point was that many GPs didn't know if their patient was a certificate holder or not. Now that the 'firearms marker' has been rolled out, that single stumbling point is gone, there is no need for a GP to pretend to know you well enough to be able to sign off a report, over and above any proper medical conditions that they would've reported you for anyway, that would affect your suitability to own firearms.

What Blackstuff just said................

Pete

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....

aaarggh

Blackstuff wrote:The whole medical thing is an arse covering exercise and a reassuring pat on the head of the sheeple, plain and simple, and the only argument is who has to pay for it.

Before this new 'mandatory' medical report thing came in everyone had to tick a little box on every grant/renewal form to say that they consent to their medical information being shared with the police. The police could request it for any reason and your GP could send it if they had any concerns about you, and it was in their interest to send it if there was.

The only sticking point was that many GPs didn't know if their patient was a certificate holder or not. Now that the 'firearms marker' has been rolled out, that single stumbling point is gone, there is no need for a GP to pretend to know you well enough to be able to sign off a report, over and above any proper medical conditions that they would've reported you for anyway, that would affect your suitability to own firearms.

although one stumbling block is that the gp's need to know what the marker is / for. I recently went to my GP for the 1st time as I'm having some pains in my leg, and when I was talking to him, he said, 'oh, do you work for the police' I then had to explain that no, that was probably my firearms marker....

I would think about getting another GP, if they missed a sh!tstorm from all the BMA circulars about this god only knows what other stuff they're blissfully unaware of. Did he/she make reference to your four 'humours' when they were treating you?

It's the "black bile" that gets me down.........

Pete