Think we are turning into some kind of weird culture where common sense goes out the window and we all accept that we should do things as we are told often by people who know (significantly) less than we do.
Cant comment on your mate as most of the thread has been edited but alcohol and "loaded" weapons is a silly combination. I personally know someone who lost his guns because of a simple DUI offence.
Couple that with any kind of reported domestic (and I suspect previous) and it is sometimes easy to see why police respond this way. (maybe if they did their homework and responded in this way with others we wouldn't have had Derek Bird wandering around having been in this exact situation shortly before his SGC/FAC renewal but that is another topic entirely)
If he was ****ed and had loads of guns lying around loaded (and by that I mean with ammunition in them, as opposed the police definition of a rifle with a bolt in it!) and some unregistered then he is an idiot.
Bad luck aside, I have had numerous "barneys" over the years, not one of them resulted in the police coming round (regardless of my at home firearms practices).
But lets not get into a high horsed evangelical blanket statements about safe practice.
Why shouldn't I have a loaded gun in my house?
Its my house and my gun.
I decide when to load it and what is safe not the police.
30 years of shooting, never having an accident, never having had an "accidental discharge" (which is more than I can say than most Armed Response Units!, you should see the stats!), never having had a firearm lost, stolen or otherwise removed from my possession/control. Rifles are (and have been by my father and his father, and his father's father before him) kept in the cabinet with the bolts IN, sometimes I even have even put some ammunition in the same cabinet! (oh the horror!
).
If I am on someone else's property or the use of my firearm is under someone else's control (i.e. shoots and ranges) then fine, tell me what to do and when.
If an FLO came to my house without an appointment and asked me why my gun was "out of it's cupboard lying on a couch" I am afraid it is none of his business. It's my house and my gun.
Ever lived on a farm? Had problems with foxes in the garden raiding the hen house?
Gone to sleep with gun by your bed?
Think the fox in your garden is going to give you time to nip downstairs, unlock the cabinet, find your bolt, load, sneak back upstairs, open the window and shoot it?
Ideal situation? No.
Occupying a locked house at night with my wife and having a weapon by the bed is not the worst thing in the world or some kind of heinous crime worthy of the police's attention.
Christ one of their supposedly "responsible" armed police officers left a bloody AR15 magazine in a baby's bed during a search/raid! Bet he didnt lose his license or have an ARU turn up and cuff him in his boxer shorts out in the street!.
I regularly load live rounds into my rifles at home to see if they chamber/eject easily. I am not going to do this just before a stalk/shoot to find out they dont!
I dont double check the mortice lock on the front door, all the window locks and pull the curtains before I open my gun cabinet either!
My second issue is this ongoing argument that I should have my FAC tattooed to my chest on the off chance that someone wants to see it.
Get a grip.
Its a piece of paper, my copy of a certificate granted to me by the police, who have access to infinitely more information than that held on my four sides of A4.
Not one of the 4 conditions on it detail that I should have it in my pyjama pocket in case of ARU visits.
They already know you have guns and are an FAC holder otherwise they would be there would they?!
So what if it is in his car, truck, glove box, bag under the bed, wife's purse?
It's your house!
I dont even carry my driving license on me all the time and I am statistically significantly more likely to kill multiple people with my car by looking at some mini skirted passer by than I am ANYTIME I go shooting!
what next?
Phoning the police to ask permission to collect my gun from their secure unit so I can go out and use it under supervision on recently risk assessed land and after a full health and safety refresh and competency test!?
sorry, rant over. but this cotton wool, health and safety, no win no fee, nanny state we now seem to live in is driving me nuts!
(not "nuts" in a psychopathic way!! before anyone feels the need to contact my local police ARU to pay me a visit........)