Taking your S.G.C with you when out shooting

[deadeye ive]

I carry my SGC with me all the time I am in possession of a shotgun.

My jackets have zippered inside pockets, so its quite safe and its not heavy. :o

Yep ...............I do the same ..............When the guns are out then so are the certs proving ownership ............No need to take a chance if you don't have to :(

[The Sniper]

kip,

 

as Mark said earlier...there is no legal requirement for you to carry either .........................BUT !!!

 

The decision is yours.

 

:o

[The Sniper]

mark,

 

I've just read your last reply........OOOps !

 

:o

[kip270]

Here it is

 

Stop and search

23.5 Section 47 of the 1968 Act gives the police various powers in connection with

offences and suspected offences in a public place, or elsewhere, under sections 18(1) and (2) and 20 of the 1968 Act. A constable having reasonable cause to suspect a person of having a firearm, with or without ammunition, with them in a public place, or to be committing or about to commit, elsewhere than in a public place, offences under sections 18(1) and (2) and 20 may require the firearms or ammunition to be handed over for examination, search that person and detain them for the purpose ofdoing so, and, if a vehicle is involved, search the vehicle and for that purpose require the person driving or in control of it to stop it. For the purpose of exercising these powers a constable may enter any place.

 

Require production of Certificates

 

23.8 Section 48 of the 1968 Act provides that a constable may demand from any person believed to be in possession of a firearm or ammunition to which section 1 of the 1968 Act applies, or of a shot gun, the production of their firearm certificate, or, as the case may be, their shot gun certificate. Section 48(2) of the 1968 Act provides a power to seize weapons and ammunition in cases of

non-compliance.

Edited April 3, 2006 by kip270

[kip270]

There it is in Black & White, you must have your tickets with you :o

[The Sniper]

kip,

 

That's a brief resume of the Sections. There is a bit more to it but that is the essence of it. I think the confusion you may have had is that, as in the bit you are quoting, it refers to " firearms ". But a shotgun is still a firearm under the Firearms Act, but not a Section 1 firearm i.e. rifle.

 

:o

[hawkeye]

If im shooting i have my jacket with me and my FAC & SGC are in a zipped inside pocket better to be safe than sorry. TAKE IT WITH YOU :o :( :( :( :( :blink:

[The Sniper]

kip,

 

Like Mark said.......there is no legal requirement , BUT, if you don't have the relevant certificate on you the Police, in theory, still can seize your weapons, until production of suitable certificate.

 

As I said earlier...the decision is yours.

 

:o

[kip270]

Agreed :o

[ferretmanabu]

Get a little leather wallet to hold you SGC. It won't get damp from sweat, dirty from mud etc. I got one from sandwell field sports when the lady asked me for my SGC and I pulled out a creased up tatty SGC. Better still, it was free. :o

[rarms]

>But they have immediate access to fireams databases

 

 

I was under the impression from the press recently that there was no national firearms database?

Edited April 4, 2006 by rarms

[The Sniper]

rarms,

 

As far as I am aware they don't. But a radio call is only a phone call away.

 

:o

[dunganick]

nick,

 

I am old school...you are a lot younger than me. The words may change but the derogatory inferrence does not. A word of advice..............Don't call a policeman PC Plod to his face :o

 

If you leave it in the car, what happens if the car gets stolen ?

 

Like I said to mark, why would a policeman take your guns from you , if they can now check instantly if you are a gun owner and the gun is yours ?

 

:(

completely agree, and wouldnt ever say it to ones face.

 

the small amount of experiance i have with the firearms dept. and people surrounding it (granted not any normal policemen) is that they are unpredictable and 9/10 times dont have a clue what they are talking about. Twice now they have threatened to get me in some serious trouble, both times i have been in the right, neither times have they appologised, instead they have 'let me off' :<

 

i dont trust them, i dont want to see anyone else handle my guns any way other than that which i do, and i suspect they would not do this.

 

reason for keeping ticket in the car is that i see it as more safe than on my person. If i fall over, or forget to zip the pocket up its easy enough for it to be lost. Not to mention if i take a different jacket and forget to change it over. It is always in my shooting bag, which i dont go anywhere without becuase it has everything i need to go shooting in it.

 

The car is not normally much more than a 10min walk away, an im pretty sure most policemen would be quite happy to put up with the 10 min walk if it saved them the hassle of the paper work, or getting an armed response unit out (which i think are called to all firearms related incidents anyway)

 

besides which as previously mentioned, they do have computers which ive been told by the FLO informs them who i am, how many guns i have, when my ticket expires etc etc..

[henry d]

I feel I must apologise that in the past I have refered to the police in a derogatory way,so I`m sorry.

Secondly I have been stopped twice,once lamping and once pigeon shooting.

Whilst lamping,we were stopped by an officer I know very well and he followed the correct procedure,by radioing in my certificate no./rifle nos. and getting control to contact the farmer(2am.)

The pigeon shooting incident could have been a tragedy :o I was shooting near an industrial estate and as it was a windy day some of my spent shot was rattling on the roof of a local haulier(I was in a place where I thought this wouldn`t happen)and he phoned the police.

A lone officer appeared to the right of my hide,I was facing to the left just as a pigeon flared away,a millisecond before I raised my gun.

"Goodness Gracious" said the officer,or something similar,before asking me why I was "Shooting at the workshops" :( Upshot of it all was he told me to be careful where I was shooting-no checks with the firearms nos. or anything at all and I now allways carry my certificates with me when shooting.On my person if it`s a long way to the car or in the car if it`s near.

[Piebob]

I think that the bobbies are no different from any other workforce - there will be those who are open-minded, want to learn/understand more and there will be those who are unwilling or unable to do so.

 

I live in a smallish, fairly rural town so perhaps the local cops have a slightly different attitude, I don't know.

 

I try to be open and friendly towards them, the FEO I met was an ex-copper and was very co-operative, I have shown my guns to a special constable I know as she wanted to see them up-close, understand how they should be handled, opened, etc, etc. and now one of my friends has just joined up.

 

As for certificates, I have never taken mine with me but I think I'll start doing so after reading this thread.

[Cranfield]

My Shotgun Certificate folds into a square, 4 x 4 1/2 inches.

It fits nicely into a plastic zippered wallet that I bought from W H Smith, which I believe is supposed to hold some stationery item.

A small leather wallet would be ideal.

 

I probably have to only produce my certificate about 2 - 3 times a year on average, so there is no worry about it getting tatty by being constantly unfolded.

 

It would certainly be useful if the document was smaller than two A4 pages.

 

I also carry my EA fishing licence with me every time I go fishing.

[claybreaker88]

What I was hoping to do was keep a good copy of my cert and keep the original one at home the plastic wallet does not come into it I lost that as well when the cert went I believe it fell out the car and when i was shooting I blew away as it was a windy day.

[Highlander]

Good debate this one even if it has turned into a two/three threads.

 

Firstly there is no legal requirement for you to carry your certs with you when out with a gun BUT your a b***** idiot if you don't. Say you get stopped (maybe at night) by plod (I'll come back to this in a minute) and you can't prove the gun is yours or even that your entitled to hold/own one? You want that sort of hassle? I doubt it!

 

Now plod or whatever else you want to call the boys in blue can be seen as derogatory and why not 'cause IMO those boys in blue have lost all the respect they used to have from ordinary (law abiding) members of the public. Maybe not their fault but when you've got leading policemen (correct term notice) vying to become politicians instead of crime fighters what can you expect. Too many times plod spends his day catching errant motorists and making life difficult for the ordinary man in the street whilst the real criminals get away scott free! That's the perception and that's why plod!

 

GH

Talking SGCs here. As I understand it you should only lend/borrow a gun from someone entitled to hold it i.e. a cert holder. If the person has said gun in their possession for more than 72 hours it should (legally) be on their cert. That is a legal requirement and it is an offence not to comply.

[Dunkield]

Nothing

[Highlander]

Nothing

Yep nothing... unless you get caught THEN you'd better think of something Quick! :o

[Piebob]

I forgot to add in my earlier post - I'm not convinced that a police officer can just phone up HQ or wherever and confirm that you are a legit SGC/FAC owner.

 

There definitely isn't a central, UK-wide database and I'm not convinced each force has an accurate one of their own. I'm sure licensing is better than it used to be, but I do not believe for one moment that any existing databases are 100% accurate.

[Cranfield]

Whilst its an easy bet to assume that not all databases are 100% correct, regardless of their purpose, I would think that the Shotgun and Firearms Certificate Holders info held by your County Police, is very, very close.

 

No doubt each County Constabulary has the facilities to request information from neighbouring Counties and whilst this may not be a Central Database, it certainly should achieve the objective.

 

Carrying your Certificates with you, just makes sense.

 

Diverting slightly.

The UK Driving Licence I have, consists of a little plastic photo ID card and the cumbersome paper document.

I accidently found out a few months ago, that you are obliged to carry both parts with you, or produce both parts at a Police Station when requested.

I assumed the plastic card would suffice as proof you have a Licence. :o

[Dunkield]

Sounds like you have a check list before you leave the house Cranfield!

I bet you can't wait for ID cards :o

 

I never carry my driving licence and I have lost count of the number of times I have been stopped by the Police - all in the past I must stress :*) And I have never thought 'shouldn't you be out catching real criminals' BTW

Edited April 4, 2006 by stuartp

[mel b3]

whenever i'm out with a shotgun or rifle i always carry my sgc , fac and written permissions , they take up very little space and it just isn't worth the grief of getting a tug without them, i bet my farmers would be most impressed at getting a call at 3am on a sunday morning from a police officer checking me out , i've got enough stress in my life without creating more for the sake of a few bits of paper.

[Cranfield]

Sounds like you have a check list before you leave the house Cranfield!

I bet you can't wait for ID cards :(

I don't have a check list, but I always carry a wallet which contains money (I have a fear of being without money, wherever I am).

As I have a wallet, it also contains drivers licence, insurance, credit cards, etc.

So I am well covered. :(

 

ID cards is a whole new thread. :o