PJ M

The Police already make a profit from processing licences and if like me you pay council tax then you are paying for their services twice over. And lets face it they do very little else for their money these days. I don't see why, once issued a Shotgun licence shouldn't be for life. There is no reason whatsoever why it should have to be renewed every five years. You don't have to renew your driving licence every five years and we have seen quite recently how much carnage a car can cause when used in anger!

Why, I wonder, is it considered necessary to have a shotgun licence renewed every five years. Surely once a person has been vetted and approved there should be no need for this. Once issued a licence should be for life, in much the same way as driving licences (and a car can be a lot more lethal). Obviously if the licence holder commits a serious crime or becomes mentally unstable the licence can be revoked. The Police would still have to be informed of the purchase and sale of any firearm and licence holders could still be subjected to spot checks. But I can see no reason why a shot gun licence should be renewed every five years, other than being a money making exercise.

Jake Davison’s mind set was to kill people and to kill them indiscriminately. If he had been denied access to a gun he would have used another implement such as a knife, hammer, axe or even a car. But I have no doubt that that anti- gun lobby will use Plymouth, as they did Hungerford, as an excuse for even tighter gun controls. And fuelled by the media you can be sure that the politicians will act if they think it will gain them popularity. But it will not be fair, just or right. It could be argued that the home office’s amendment to the firearms regulations last year, requiring an applicant to provide a form to be signed off by their GP, highlighting any mental issues, including anxiety and mild depression, may well turn out to have been a contributing factor in the Plymouth killings. This amendment actively discourages those who shoot from going to see their doctors to seek help for mental illness, for fear of losing their licences. But you can be sure the authorities will play that one down. You cannot legislate against insanity. Davison is dead. That, tragic though the incident was, should be the end of the matter, but of course it won’t. PJM

Thank you all for your comments. I think I'll try a different brand of cartridge and see if the problem reoccurs. If it does then I'll get the extractor checked out. The gun I'm using is a Rizzini o/u. It's about twenty years old.

Has anyone had a problem of jamming with Lyalvale express super light? It's happened to me on two occasions now. The lip on the base of the cartridge appears to have flipped under the extractor.