BTW, Casper and rockdrill, would you briefly descibe the process that you go through to purchase,own,transport and practice with your Super Redhawks ? There has been a lot of misinformation about the ownership of firearms in the UK, and I would like to hear of the difficulties or ease of firearm ownership from forum members that directly deal with their system of laws.
RWG
No worries, the following should cover the basic points:
The UK operates a licensed system for firearms ownership in a two tier system. Licensing is carried out by the various regional police forces. My own regional police is Devon & Cornwall Police.
Shotguns (single barrel, doubles and pumps/semi's of 3 shot capacity) can be owned by what is known as a shotgun certificate. This requires that you are not someone prohibited by way of either current minor criminal convictions or past serious convicitons from possessing a gun. Part of getting a shotgun certificate (SGC) is having somewhare secure to store the gun. This is generally a gunsafe securely attached to the fabric of your home.
When you have the SGC you can own as many shotguns as you wish provided they are kept securely when not in use. With the SGC you just walk into the gunstore / private sale and buy what you can afford and take it away there and then. The seller enters the details onto your certificate.
Here is a link to the applicatiuon form for a UK shotgun certificate:
http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/OnlineServices/ApplyFirearmsCertificate/Documents/ShotgunApplicationPack.pdf
Other categories of firearm require a firearms certificate (FAC). The application for this is a bit more in-depth in that you are required to be a member of a target shooting club and/or have authority to use firearms on land for hunting / pest control purposes. As with the SGC there are background checks carried out.
The major difference is with an FAC you nominate what calibre and types of guns you wish to possess and for what reasons e.g. deer hunting, pest control, target shooting, collecting. There is no limit on how many you can own as long as you demonstrate good reason. Once you have your FAC, again you just go and buy what calibre and type of gun you asked for, no extra waiting time before taking your gun home. On FAC there is no magazine capacity limitation on any firearm and sound moderators (suppressors) are readily available for most classes of firearm. There are no travel restrictions in transporting firearms within the UK, only provisos are that they are unloaded and secure (as far as is practical) and you are transporting them in connection with their use/purchase.
Firearms are kept at the applicant's homes with a requirement for secure storage i.e. gun safes. Some clubs have gun safes on their premises to store club guns that are used by members prior to their obtaining their own FAC's and buying their own guns. But there is no general requirement for privately owned guns to be stored by clubs.
Overall the system is pretty straightforward, just can be a bit slow at times waitnig on the licensing departments to deal with the volume of work.
Here is a link to a firearms certificate application form:
http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/OnlineServices/ApplyFirearmsCertificate/Documents/FirearmApplicationPack.pdf
Link to Devon & Cornwall Police website section on firearms:
Introduction | Devon & Cornwall Police
The menu on the right side should also give you some insight into the process we have to follow.