Ozzy Fudd

only mistake you made was telling her it was a gun, should have just said fishing rod

heres what i got so far, very interesting responses still waiting for two more (nothing from the shinners yet) Dear xxxxx, Thank you for your letter I will look into this problem and contact the PSNI in relation to speeding up the application process. Dominic Bradley SDLP MLA for Newry and Armagh Dear Mr xxxxx Thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to write to me regarding this very important issue. I can confirm that I and my staff in my offices in Markethill and Tandragee have been trying to assist a large number of constituents renew their Firearms Certificates over recent months, and I share your frustration at the current system in place. I believe there is a policy, operated by senior elements in both the PSNI and the Government, to greatly reduce the number of legally held Firearms in circulation in NI, and that this is in itself politically motivated, due to historic reasons. I am of course very happy to assist in any way with individual applications, either for yourself or other friends and associates. I believe the figures you quote in relation to the present backlog are accurate, and these will continue to slow the system down, which in turn dissuades people to apply. Whether the possible devolution of Policing and Justice powers to the NI Assembly would or will make any difference remains to be seen - I am not convinced! Please feel free to contact me or my staff if we can assist you in any way - I have listed the contact numbers below for your convenience. In the meantime, I wish you well with your interest and hobby. Kind regards Danny Kennedy MLA UUP xxxxxx Thanks for your email on the issue of firearms licensing processing delays. It certainly is something that many of my constituents have mentioned to me in the past. In fact as an elected representative I get scores of applications to fill in and I must admit the forms in my opinion are overly complicated for all the necessary information that is required - especially in what should be a simple case of adding or removing a weapon. I also find the costs expensive for simply processing a piece of paper. The waiting times are unacceptable and I know it is something that our Party has raised in the past and will continue to do in the future. I shall mention this matter again to our Party Officers and see what more could be done to highlight this issue. I trust this is useful and in the meantime if you have further queries please do not hesitate to contact me. Yours sincerely Cllr. William Irwin MLA DUP Newry & Armagh Constituency

might be in sometime after 10 when i finish in the pub

i didnt get on well witht the benelli nova i had, got rid of it after a week and bought another mossberg, some things just felt a bit too fiddly, but could just be me

why not just use buckshot?? you either miss or totally mince them, no wounded birds at all (yes, im taking the p - sure buckshot is far too expensive for decoying )

fair enough, we have to be properly vetted, i agree, but why does it take so long if youre an existing fac holder? if i wanted to add an air rifle in a couple of months why should it take 6 months to re-vet me? especially if i already own shotguns and rifles?! dont get me wrong, im not sitting here expecting it to be sorted out next week, but what harm can it do by taking 15 minutes to send an email or two?

if you look here I acknowledge that our assembly has not had policing and justice powers devolved yet, so I'm not sure if theres anything that you can do to help the situation, but I thought it was necessary to draw your attention to it in the hope that you somehow may be able to help - even just acknowledging the problem at Assembly level would be an achievement and hopefully a step in the right direction. i basically said i know they have no control, but one thing i do know (from recent experience) is that the cops do not like politicians breathing down their necks

fat dogs right, ive given the letter to a couple of people but sed to change a few things. heres the letters if you want inspiration, bit long worded but i thought sod it, i pay my taxes so they can take 5 mins to read it (ps i put ollie in as a good mate - thought it sounded better than a bloke i know through a shootin website ) Dear Mr xxxxx I am one of your constituents living in the xxxxxx area and wanted to draw your attention to a matter affecting myself and many other people living not just in this area, but in the whole of Northern Ireland itself. I am a registered firearms owner, along with almost 200,000 other people in the north, however we feel that we are being treated like second class citizens by the PSNI/Civil Service when it comes to our sport, hobby, and in some cases, occupation. As you may (or may not) be aware, to become a firearms owner you must submit an application form to the PSNI Firearms and Explosives Branch, Lisnasharragh, Belfast, and pay the relevant fee. Also if you wish to purchase a second, third, etc, firearm, you must submit another application form; also, to renew your licence (which lasts 5 years) you must submit a further form. Although the forms are complicated most people dont mind filling them, however the waiting lists for the licences to be granted are, in no other word, ridiculous. In England/Scotland/Wales a first time firearms application is usually granted within 3 to 4 weeks of the initial application - over here a wait of 6 months is to be expected, and it is usually longer. For the grant of a variation to a licence (eg adding another gun), in England/Scotland/Wales, again, a 3/4 week wait is the norm, at the moment here it is an expected 6 months+. As you can understand this is leaving prospective and existing firearms holders feeling discriminated against. Whilst we understand that the security situation here causes some extra problems a good friend of mine was told last week that the reason there is such a delay is that there is a back log of approximately 1000 applications, and that the firearms processing office is currently understaffed! Another problem is the issue of receipt letters. When an application for renewal, variation, etc, is submitted the PSNI issue a letter to the certificate holder which enables them to continue to purchase ammunition when not in possession of their actual licence. These letters usually arrive within 14 days of submitting an application, however at the moment it takes much longer - one person I know had been waiting over 6 weeks for his receipt letter, never mind his full licence! This can cause severe problems as there is a limit of how much ammunition you can legally have in your possession - if you run out you cant replace it. Apart from, as I said, it leaving us feeling victimised (many feel that the PSNI are deliberately working slowly to try and put people off becoming legal firearms owners) it has a large impact on wider issues, especially the economy and health - people like myself are often asked my farmers to engage in pest control services for them, both in the protection of crops/livestock from pests/predators, and also to combat health issues, such as birds roosting in barns and leaving droppings on machinery, and rats eating grain and infesting farm yards. The fact that we are hindered by waiting times has a great effect on carrying these tasks out. Also there is a wider impact on the economy than farming - gun dealers, clay pigeon grounds, shooting estates and even the forestry commission lose revenue, and also the government lose out on application and variation fees (application £50, variation £26) due to people being put off by waiting times. I acknowledge that our assembly has not had policing and justice powers devolved yet, so I'm not sure if theres anything that you can do to help the situation, but I thought it was necessary to draw your attention to it in the hope that you somehow may be able to help - even just acknowledging the problem at Assembly level would be an achievement and hopefully a step in the right direction. Thank you for your time. Yours Sincerely xxx xxxx

true, but we might as well try, you never know - personally im sick of non stop excuses and long waits. if anyones looking a copy of the letter/email to send to you local guys pm me or ollie

just typed out an email to send my local mla's (5 of them) so it should be interesting to see what happens. if your wondering who your local ones are, heres a list - http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mlas/

good luck mate, took 3 courses of antibiotics to get mine shifted :unsure:

anyone i know who has a ppw needed it because they were a target, as we all know you cant rely on the police too much in those situations :unsure: anyway, getting back on track (as i dont want this turning into a row and the thread getting closed) ollie just posted a thread saying after 2 weeks he hasnt even got his receipt letter back, thats a bit ridiculous - if that was england he'd probably have his full licence and all by now! im going to email a couple of my local mla's this week and see what they have to say about the situation, anyone else fancy doing the same?

take a look at the thread i started in general shooting matters about the waiting times, im going to email some of the local mla's this week :unsure:

its been going on for a while now, just dont answer the door if you dont know who they are

32g 6's again here, use them for everything only time i really use 7.5's is if im sitting in a barn picking them off as they fly in; not saying they wont do the job up to 30 yards but theres less room for error with them imo :unsure:

did i tell you what happened when i went to the cops after the mod lost all my personal details on a laptop? (several laptops in fact...) i was handed a nice wee booklet, advising me (among many things) to check who's at the door before i open it, to vary my movements, and to possibly get a dog ah well, getting a bit off topic here, i pm'd david basc earlier (though i know he's a bit busy at mo) to see what basc ni where doing, would it be any use if someone contacted the ca, etc?

just wondering, how many of those are ppw's? plus i always reckoned that because of the higher proportion of people with police/military service we have then of course we'll have more registered shooters, never mind the fact that were still quite a rural country :unsure:

well tell him we need the guns to protect the birds from foxes... :blink: valid point, i know a couple of people with air rifles, but again, not many (and you mentioning that has just reminded me i was gonna buy a cheap springer as well and send it all off on the one application... )

finally got the forms posted off for my .17hmr yesterday, so now im settling down for a (supposed) 6 month wait. but its started me thinking a bit, that our fac waiting periods are a bit of a joke. when i got my first licence it took 9 months from i applied til the licence came through the door, and that was with the feo helping me as much as possible. then when i swapped one .22lr for another i was told it would take about 4 weeks, i finally got the licence back after about 14 weeks :unsure: the only times ive been dealt with quickly were, firstly, when i moved address, and secondly when i applied for the eu gun licence (had it within 2 weeks). over a year ago i heard stories that they had really speeded up the applications process (a friend bought a glock 17 and had the licence back before the gun had left germany), but things seem to be worse than ever. so this started me thinking, is there anything that can be done? i dont mean ringing up lisnasharragh and having a go, but are the shooting organisations (BASC, CA, etc) doing anything to try and speed things up a bit? and is there anything that we can do, as individual shooters, such as getting in touch with our local mla's, etc? i know that our security situation here means that our licencing system will never be as relaxed as the mainland (but we still get pistols, so na na nana na!! :blink:) but surely there must be something that can be done - apart from the fact that it prevents alot of people getting involved in shooting as they dont want to wait so long for their first gun, its also a bit of a pain for existing fac holders - if im deemed fit to own 2 12ga shotguns and a .22lr already, why should i have to wait 6 months to be allowed a 2nd rimfire? ps i know weve talked a bit about this before, but things seem to be worse than ever now so thought id post it up and get right to the point

check your parents house insurance, a lot of policies covers up to a certain amount (£3k usually) of contents while a kid is at uni :unsure:

i have two mossberg pumps (500a and 600at), i dont think the recoil is too bad from them tbh, in fact its better than most guns ive fired anyway if the slugster is the one with the rifle iron sights then theyre ok, but youre right about not being too practical - for starters i reckon the barrels a bit too short, (but thats just me) plus i dont like fixed choke on them. but nice gun all the same :unsure:

:hmm:

i heard it was getting strict but didnt know it was that tough, and i thought we had it bad up here going by all this then i think the best option would be to give the guards a call and see what they say, but be prepared to be passed round several stations til you find someone that knows - it could even be better if you called into a station (bit far for most of you lads though) but everyone here seems to have heard something different edit - just saw dazza's 2nd post, they must have got alot stricter, there you go clutey

hmm dont know. a guy i shoot with the odd time used to get an roi licence, when it was due for renewal he called into a garda station somewhere and asked for the forms, after messing about for half an hour and making half a dozen phonecalls they told him an eu licence was ok ive never really had to use it, was given permission on a farm that straddles the border (thats why i got the licence) but ive yet to go up to it (long story )

i just got an eu gun licence, it was free, just had to send off a form to the psni along with a photo and it came back about a week later (unlike my main fac). i know a few guys who used to get roi gun licences as well as uk ones, as they were down south all the time, but most of us just keep the eu ones now - plus its easy enough to sprint for the border if theres a problem :hmm: