legal question for every shooter

[IainWR]

Sim g I take on board your comments as I do d69's and yes I agree you are all there u discover a gun that belongs to nobody present then you should be ok untill you call them up and tell them, (although i wouldent be sure about that) what happens if its the morning and the guns been there all night? clear violation , just how do you cover yourself or your club/organisation ? What happens if sombody nicks it? And the owner says well I left it at the range! Or would that be a bridge to cross should you come to it? All I wanna know is if we as clubmates of a forgetfull fellow clubmate would be liable in any way if we never repoted a clear firearms law breach?

I don't have the legal principle to hand, but my interpretation was the same as Sim G's (and given his background I'm sure he's right), that there is in general no legal obligation to report a crime.

I believe that in most circumstances surrounding club operations, one could deal with another member's rifle or MLP by invoking S15(1) Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988. That would be my argument for the legality of leaving your rifle in the care of another member while doing butts duty, for instance. It is well-established that S15 covers transport of firearms to and from secure storage.

That still leaves the problem of S1 shotguns, LBRs and LBPs.

Short answer remains - look after your firearms.

Iain

[the running man]

I think the butts thing is covered as your sort of in the club at the time, although being on crown property may change the firearms laws slightly im not sure on that neither when I think of it am I sure of leaving your rifle at the point whilst being in the butts, although common practice....my op was are we breaking any laws by withholding the fact that someone has breached thier facconditions ? To be honest im still none the wiser......bit of a grey area at the moment...

A bit off track, I know sombody thst got fined by the nra for leaving his rifle on mellville, he had in fact taken sombody elses in an identical bag as did the other person, but still got fined! Hes got tags on his cases now!

[the running man]

Thanks iian, u posted just before I did...clears it up a little.....

[tackb]

my take is this , we are law abiding people (fac holders) and me personally I would endeavour to secure the said firearm from falling into unlicensed hands and if I had to defend myself in court for being in possession of a firearm that's not on my ticket I would trust to the law to see common sense ? I know the law is devoid of common sense sometimes but at least the firearm wasn't in criminal hands?

[The Gun Pimp]

This comes up in the NRA RCO Course. If you find such a firearm, that has been inadvertently left on range, provided you take all reasonable steps to re-unite it with its rightful owner, you aren't breaking the law.

[Dave 101]

If your all mates at the club you would help each other out surely , secure the firearm at the range , range armoury , I always carry a padlock and steel cable so I would secure it some how somewhere on a secure range . Contact club secretary and get owners details and phone him , get the club RFD to take charge of it . theres plenty of easy things to do without dropping someone in the crapper .
I have known it to happen and have heard plenty of stories of it happening , heard a good one last week at Grove , a guy who shoots PSG and took his shotgun to the Gunsmiths because he wasn't happy with the trigger , when he booked it in collars and cuffs don't match , both him and another guy with the same make of gun had picked up the wrong ones , it was all sorted amicably .


Dave

[Denno]

We talked about this when I was on my RCO course - it covers someone falling ill on the range to and having to leave the kit there. The RCO is can act as an agent for the club to keep the kit including guns safe. In fact anyone can do this i.e transport a rifle from the club to a range, they dont need a firearms certificate to do this - just club membership.

I would obviously not recommend asking a newbie to do this instead the most appropriate person there.

[Alpha1]

Like I said earlier the range conducting officer at the end of the day before he signs the range off walks the firing point the butts etc then details some one off to re check the range and retrace his steps .Whats complicated about that.

[Mr_Logic]

These types of thing really bug me. Let's spend time making a rod for our own backs. This is pointless - find a firearm, find its owner. tell said owner they are a Muppet, claim free beer. End.

Really arguing over this be it here or on the range is daft.

Shall we do 'is a-max expanding / legal for deer' too? What about 22rf for foxes?

[the running man]

Unfortunately in todays ordered society one has to watch ones own back, and avon and somerset firearms dept seem to have a history of late of taking great plesure in revoking fac and sgc for minor infractions however minute or well intentioned, And has a manager who is clearly behind it all so you will understand the point of this op.

That said, I think if a gun is found on a range the least possible folk who know about it the better....