Guns seized....again

[Alpha1]

If you are waiting for National bodies to help you are on a looser. There is no national body its a joke its just a way of screwing money out of people.. The NRA is not a National Rifle Association it is the home of the Bisley Shooting Club. Tell me when the NRA has set up any shooting venue for its members in the North East of England.

[paul mercer]

Apparently BASC do offer some sort of cover for their members, although it doesn't specify seizure of guns, it states:
The membership insurance package offered by BASC will include £100,000 of legal expenses cover for appeals against firearms licensing decisions, starting from 1 March 2014.
Individuals have raised concerns that some firearms licensing departments seem reluctant to carry out proper risk management processes to reach decisions in certain cases, allowing the courts to instead take responsibility. BASC has developed its new legal expenses policy to enable members to challenge potential injustice without having to worry about personally incurring large legal costs.
Had this clause been withdrawn?

[dromia]

If it is still there then it might as well not be there.

I know of three shooters who tried to access BASC legal help over the past 18 months or so and were told that their situations weren't coverable.

These were just your usual run of the mill certification departments playing hard ball with their interpretation of the law and saying if you don't like it see us in court. However BASC won't be seeing them in court.

BASC is as shite as the rest of them and just screw over legal gun owners.

[MistAgain]

Apparently BASC do offer some sort of cover for their members, although it doesn't specify seizure of guns, it states:
The membership insurance package offered by BASC will include £100,000 of legal expenses cover for appeals against firearms licensing decisions, starting from 1 March 2014.
Individuals have raised concerns that some firearms licensing departments seem reluctant to carry out proper risk management processes to reach decisions in certain cases, allowing the courts to instead take responsibility. BASC has developed its new legal expenses policy to enable members to challenge potential injustice without having to worry about personally incurring large legal costs.
Had this clause been withdrawn?

BASC stopped the cover a couple of years ago .(Or more !)

It was cancelled halfway through the year with very little warning .
It was pointed out to them that they had a legal obligation to offer the insurance for the remaing part of the membership year for existing members .

As for their current advice facility , all I can say at present is that you should get advice on the BASC's advice .

[hitchphil]

Just looked at Gunplan, with the legal cover and minimal personal accident it comes out at £45.90

Agree, it's the very basic cover is ~£25 & yep thats introductory too- roughly equivalent cover to my NRA membership (kit, legal etc) was a fair bit more with gunplan so i wont be migrating to them. But for ~£30 you can get cover for revocation, suspension, refusal to renew & I dont believe thats unaffordable to shooters. So I wont be buying any excuses, or doing go fund me instead.

People need to protect themselves from an ever officious licencing system thats under political pressure, & to me unless you have a spare £20k in the bank to self cover? thats insurance. Not sure if you can recover costs if you win a reversal of revocation case though?

[dromia]

Correction "certification system".

[MistAgain]

Just a quick update.

1. Spoke to Gwent Polices Professional standards; nice lady, understood my complaint. Said she will ask the FEO / Inspector their reasoning behind their decisions. Can't force them to reverse the seizure but can investigate if their 'policy' goes outside of force rules, especially the potential DDA discrimination, and then take 'action' if it does. I'm 50/50 on whether I get a good outcome from this.
2. Spoke to a firearms specialist solicitor who said if I force a revocation then it could be 6K to 10K to fight in court.
3. Home Insurance Legal protection have said they won't fund a legal challenge - it's all in the policy small print!
4. Equality Advisory and Support Service have said it sounds like a clear case of Direct Discrimination against a protected characteristic - so have given me the 'template letter' to send to Gwent Police as a start of a DDA claim - but again I'd have to fund it.
5. Oncologist and local cancer charity (if you are ever affected, these people are worth their weight https://www.maggies.org/) are all disgusted with how I've been treated but not a lot they can do

Wondering if a GoFundMe is worth it to raise the legal fees?

Another possibility that is worth looking into .

Send a signed for letter to your Chief Constable & Firearms Manager saying you wish to have your FAC and Firearms returned within 14 days or you will seek legal advice .

Find a solicitor who gives free consults and also approved to offer "no win , no fee deals" .
Explain your problem to them .

Tell them that you believe that the police refusal to return your FAC and goods is an interference with the peaceful
enjoyment with your possessions within the meaning of Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms .

Then ask them what the costs will be on a no win , no fee basis .

If you dont get your FAC and goods back , you instruct the solicitors .

They send a polite letter to Chief Constable , With luck you get FAC and goods returned .

If not , you go to court .

[paul mercer]

Apparently BASC do offer some sort of cover for their members, although it doesn't specify seizure of guns, it states:
The membership insurance package offered by BASC will include £100,000 of legal expenses cover for appeals against firearms licensing decisions, starting from 1 March 2014.
Individuals have raised concerns that some firearms licensing departments seem reluctant to carry out proper risk management processes to reach decisions in certain cases, allowing the courts to instead take responsibility. BASC has developed its new legal expenses policy to enable members to challenge potential injustice without having to worry about personally incurring large legal costs.
Had this clause been withdrawn?

BASC stopped the cover a couple of years ago .(Or more !)

It was cancelled halfway through the year with very little warning .
It was pointed out to them that they had a legal obligation to offer the insurance for the remaing part of the membership year for existing members .

As for their current advice facility , all I can say at present is that you should get advice on the BASC's advice .

Thanks for the info, 'Get advice on the BASC's advice - I like it! What I wrote was taken from their 'Chat' - 'ask a question' bit on their website - it seems that they don't update it very often!

[Pippin89]

Really sorry to read all of this... As if you needed another stress in your life. If they have genuinely removed them for your own safety, you should offer to surrender your kitchen knifes and shoelaces to them too!
In your email chain, the person who claims to be running the show, very explicitly stated that "the only issue is your health". So if they are trying to add a false misper onto the case then someone is just trying to cover their proverbial.
FYI - my knowledge of the subject is about 20 years old so forgive me is this is incorrect - police will not open a missing person case until 72 hours after they have gone missing (for an adult) so while they may make enquiries, she should not have been declared a misper at any point. The only way this should happen (unless something has changed so apologies if it has) is if the friend told them she was missing for longer, or the police are, again, lying...

[Plumose]

FYI - my knowledge of the subject is about 20 years old so forgive me is this is incorrect - police will not open a missing person case until 72 hours after they have gone missing (for an adult) so while they may make enquiries, she should not have been declared a misper at any point. The only way this should happen (unless something has changed so apologies if it has) is if the friend told them she was missing for longer, or the police are, again, lying...

Police will open an missing persons case straight away as long as there is a genuine reason to think they are missing:

" It is a common belief that you have to wait 24 hours before reporting but this is not true, you can make a report to the police as soon as you think a person is missing.

If you are extremely concerned for the welfare of the person then dial 999 and ask for the police"
from
https://missingpersons.police.uk/en-gb/ ... ne-missing#