rogcal

I sold all my firearms in April and surrendered my Shotgun and Firearms Certs to Lincolnshire Police on the 14th of April and to my surprise when I recently looked at my online medical record available on my GPs website, there was an entry made on the 19th April which read " No longer has shotgun certificate". So, plod and the docs do talk to each other in Lincolnshire and in a timely manner too!

Seeking counsel's opinion was something I would request of our legal department to undertake as soon as I became aware of a government agency, local authority or other public entity acting ultra vires and that their actions were causing our authority additional costs in resources and or inability to exercise a particular right or statutory obligation. It would normally take one or two days for our legal department to instruct counsel. Given that BASC knew of Lincolnshire Police's policy change some weeks ago, I have to ask the question "why so long to instruct counsel"? As for making any kind of comment or statement when not in possession of counsel's opinion, well that's just plain barmy.

When we started to renovate our old farmhouse 16 years ago we took barrow loads of ex Jackdaw nest away including a few skeletons of those you that didn't make it to the fledgling stage. Three of the flues were blocked off leaving ventilation at the top and bottom and the remaining dummy flue plus the one we wished to use were left uncapped. We left the dummy flue untouched as it felt right for the colony of Jackdaws to still have one nesting site left available to them as they had been using the flues unhindered for decades. The remaining flue was fitted with a flue liner for a solid fuel stove and not fitted with a bird guard as we thought the Jackdaws would find impossible to build a nest in it, not so it seems. Each year we get a forewarning of attempted nest building in the flue liner when twigs start to fall into the stove from which I have removed the throat plate. At this point I start a small fire which clears the debris and dissuades any more attempts at nest building. The bonus of having the dummy flue next to the live flue with flue liner is when the fledglings first venture from the nest in the dummy flue for a stretch and look around and usually return to their nest to continue to be raised by their parents however, there's always one or two stupid birds that hop down the wrong "pot" and end up in the unlit stove and during their struggles to stop falling down the flue liner they do a wonderful job of clearing all the soot from the liner, so much so that in the last 16 years I've never had to have the flue liner swept. After I remove these young "chimney sweeps" from the stove I put them in a large cage within view of the chimney pots where their parents will be able to see and call to them. After an hour or so I get hold of the young 'un and with as much energy I can muster I throw them aloft which at least gets them on the roof near the stack at which point the parents coax them back or take food to them. We shall be moving soon and thankfully the new owners are bird lovers and have vowed to continue this tradition of chimney sweeping going.

There was a fact that couldn't be ignored and that was the plentiful supply of war trophies that had found their way back to this country after WW1. I recall my father (born 1902) telling me that he and many of his friends would walk around with British or German pistols in their leisure time just because it was the in thing. Like today's teenagers they had to have an image to live up to and at that time a pistol in the pocket was one of them. I don't think it was something that was particular to the East End where he lived at the time and was likely a countrywide phenomenon. He also told me that the market for pistols was such a good one and people with the right contacts would find ways of getting more war trophies into the country other than by returning soldiers. He had a friend who was a steward on a ship that regularly plied between London and Sydney and on his return it wasn't unusual for him to half a half a dozen or so pistols with him that he'd purchased in OZ which had arrived their with the returning ANZAC troops. Perhaps this scenario was part of the equation when the Government decided to introduce legislation they did.

Perhaps I should explain a little more about my reasons for disposing of all my firearms and not renewing my certs. Certain aspects of shooting no longer appealed to me and a few mobility issues didn't help either. The fact that I shall be moving and no longer own several acres of land would remove the requirement to have a "need" to possess firearms for pest control purposes however, I did fancy taking up pistol shooting again after the move as I would be close to an authorised range but this would be based on how strongly I felt about it when the time came. I rang the licencing dept to discuss renewing both certs but not holding any firearms on them to allow me a choice of what if any shooting disciplines I'd follow after I'd moved and settled in. Their response was pretty ambiguous and given the fact that I'd have to jump through their newly imposed hoops for what maybe no reason at all if I decided not to pursue any form of shooting, I decided to dispose of everything and surrender my certs. I suppose I could reapply at some later date and seeing as I shall still be living in Lincolnshire those same hoops will still need jumping through but with my move will come a change of GP which could make things easier as my current GP is a conscientious objector to firearms and has made his feelings on the subject quite clear in the past . This is one aspect of the "new" LincsPol licencing regime does worry me greatly and in my case if my GP refused to complete a report because of his personal objections to firearms, I would have to ask one of his colleagues to carry out the function and as I have only seen him over the last 15 years, the only info his colleague would have to go on would be my medical history alone and not know a thing about me as a person.

Bad At Serious Concern I think not!

Well, today saw my cabinets finally emptied, so no need to jump through the hoops LincsPol are asking me to jump through. Crossbows and catapults from now on!

Now sold.

Now sold.

Oh how wonderful it would be if sporting shooters began to wear Mr Packham's camo clothing whilst out on a shoot. Just think of the photo opportunities that would present themselves. A selfie of yourself reaching down to take a pheasant/partridge from your gundogs mouth with the caption "Thanks to the additional camouflage provided by Chris Packham's products, my tally of birds has increased tremendously. Thanks Chris". Uploaded to your favourite FB group it would be fun to see the reaction of the tree huggers.

Now sold. Thanks to everyone who showed an interest.

Spalding is not that far from me, so I could drop them in to you if you prefer. I'll message you with my phone number.

Fly in. I have an airstrip.

You mean you don't fancy a pleasant day out in sunny Lincolnshire!

Done