Yes. And it works really well. All the police know who has what and where, irrespective of what or where your certificate is. It would he dead easy for there to be a dedicated phone line for sales, so you call up, give the certificate number and it confirms the name and address of the holder or if its a fake or expired etc. It doesn't even next to be staffed, it could be automated. That would eaosly have flushed out this twisted killer.
My feelings exactly. Teenagers in the US used to drive their pick up to school, leave it unlocked with rifles on the gun rack and nothing happened. What's changed since then???? The evolution of shooting computer games - kids are growing up shooting others in a game scenario and there's bound to be some that then think, I wonder what this would be like in real life.
I agree, some way for a seller to reliably authenticate your ticket. Maybe if they scan it it shows your picture and the expiry dates and FAC numbers and what they can possess. However there will need to be caution to not allow this to backfire and enable criminals to target us FAC owners in some way.
The Tories track record on firearms is about the same.
Allowing a web portal for transfers would be good. Wont need to deal with emails from both parties that way and will all be automated.
The problem with anything public racing and online is that is can be hacked. Look what happened to Guntrader. That would be an utter disaster and you can bet your bottom dollar the government response would be to ban even more things 'just in case', despite it being their fault. I think the best plan is a telephone line you can call, pass the operator the certificate ref in question (as well as your own cert number and key details to confirm you are also legitimate) and they can tell you if the certificate is legitimate and if the holder is entitled to purchase whatever it is they are looking to purchase. Confirmation can be fairly simple and doesn't need to give out personal details. If it was an automated system, it could work 24/7, so this incident would not be able to happen.
Sorry that you left BASC and I respect your decision and thank you for the kind words. And to address some of the other comments in the thread the organisations do work together with a common voice in discussions with the Home Office on matters relating to firearms licensing and legislation via the British Shooting Sports Council (BSSC).
www.bssc.org.uk
Absolutely spot on, well said Sir.
If the fake certificate is good enough to convince the seller then what difference would it make if the transaction was completed at an RFD?
