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andy1979 wrote:From what BASC have told me my licensing department West Midlands police hasn’t adopted the 2019 guidance yet.
I got the impression from the off that is was a forgone conclusion.
Even my wife said what a prick the guy was.
Picked on everything including my key storage think the only thing he didn’t pick on was the physical cabinet installation.
It’ll get fought I’ve legal expenses insurance so I’ll fight it as far as I can.

I hate to ask what may seem a stupid question ............

But who is your legal expenses insurance with ?

Mattnall wrote:

RDC wrote:

Mattnall wrote: In which case if you are a member and they are NRA affiliated you can go to Bisley and shoot most calibres you want.

Only if the club books the range as a club booking. Only individual NRA members can book lanes themselves, if I recall correctly.

That's immaterial.
It gives good reason and suitable place for larger calibres than the OP's club can cater for, and he can easily have access to it.

Not necessarily... My smallbore club books ranges at Bisley for Fullbore TR and exclusively for .308/7.62. Therefore I have no reason to own any other calibre with that club. As an actual NRA member you could book a range for anything you are signed off to shoot as far as I am aware.

Pippin89 wrote:
Not necessarily... My smallbore club books ranges at Bisley for Fullbore TR and exclusively for .308/7.62. Therefore I have no reason to own any other calibre with that club. As an actual NRA member you could book a range for anything you are signed off to shoot as far as I am aware.

Again, immaterial.

It is not about what you do but what you can do.

The OP want/needs some place to be able to fire his 223 that he wants to acquire, justify the suitable place for owning such a rifle. Being a member of a NRA affiliated club gives you access to Bisley so potentially the OP could not only shoot on a club booking (in fact he could be the only one there from the club) but he could also enter open shoots or competitions there as well.

MistAgain wrote:

andy1979 wrote:From what BASC have told me my licensing department West Midlands police hasn’t adopted the 2019 guidance yet.
I got the impression from the off that is was a forgone conclusion.
Even my wife said what a prick the guy was.
Picked on everything including my key storage think the only thing he didn’t pick on was the physical cabinet installation.
It’ll get fought I’ve legal expenses insurance so I’ll fight it as far as I can.

I hate to ask what may seem a stupid question ............

But who is your legal expenses insurance with ?

When BASC announced the discontinuation of legal expenses cover I shopped around and ended up going with Country cover club think it was £38 a year for £12m public liability, £10k personal accident, £100K legal expenses and some other benefits like funeral expenses etc. covers for all shooting and hunting activities amongst other things.
but they have a 24/7 legal helpline.

Went down the club last night.

This FEO is well known for being a prick he doesn't like guns in private ownership by all accounts and I'm told has cost West midlands police and Staffordshire police a fortune in lost legal cases, He's also had numerous complaints put in against him.

Club secretary last night said the FEO had been on the phone to him on Wednesday arguing the toss with him that the range was not capable of taking a .17HMR or .300Blackout our club range is rated for 1475 ftlb and apparently he didn't have a clue what our club secretary was talking about when he was quoting round energy figures for the calibre's I've applied for.

Spoke with a specialist firearms solicitor yesterday and at the bare minimum I have them for breaching GDPR regulations and the FEO carried out no identity checks before starting the interview and discussing sensitive information.
I have the licensing manager for forwarding the contents of my complaint to the FEO involved in my application without investigation which has compromised my application.
I have the FEO for going against home office guidelines and making his own rules up.

Solicitor confirmed medical conditions are historic and carry little weight. confirmed that the arrest shouldn't pose too much of an issue as it was two years ago and was a one off incident.

Solicitors recommendation was a complaint to the IOPC and or the chief constable for the numerous breaches of law and home office guidelines.

General consensus at the club last night was they will back down as they won't want another legal fight and a another complaint they stand little chance winning.

Generally how long would you expect a firearms grant visit to last? a mate at the club had his a month ago same licensing unit and his lasted just over an hour.

andy1979 wrote: Generally how long would you expect a firearms grant visit to last? a mate at the club had his a month ago same licensing unit and his lasted just over an hour.

How long is a piece of string? It will be different for each individual as we all have different circumstances and the FEO could have done different levels of research into you beforehand.

It does beg the question why do they continue to employ someone in that specific role who keeps losing them cash in lost legal cases though. How much of that is club room rumour?

RDC wrote:

andy1979 wrote: Generally how long would you expect a firearms grant visit to last? a mate at the club had his a month ago same licensing unit and his lasted just over an hour.

How long is a piece of string? It will be different for each individual as we all have different circumstances and the FEO could have done different levels of research into you beforehand.

It does beg the question why do they continue to employ someone in that specific role who keeps losing them cash in lost legal cases though. How much of that is club room rumour?

It was general consensus amongst members some even gave their personnel experiences of interactions with him none were good.

The Range officer said exactly the same separate to what had been discussed in the club room.

one example given was a club up the road has a 22 yard range with a lower energy rating on their range he didn't question issuing tickets for .300 blackouts we have a 25 yard range with a higher energy rating and he argues the toss which apparently became quite heated with our club secretary in the end i think he told to come down and inspect the paperwork for the range if he didn't believe him.

I ask because he was in my house for exactly 39 minutes and that included him nearly going arse over tit down the steps outside my house

My FEO said at the start of mine that they typically last about an hour. She was there about an hour and a quarter in the end. 40 minutes is short but not excessively so if all was smooth and easy. In your case I would guess it to be longer rather than shorter unless he just wanted to get in and out as quick as possible. But I am just guessing.

I must have been lucky, my intial grant was 5 weeks from submitting the paperwork to my certificate dropping through the letterbox, my interview lasted about half an hour and I've never seen my FLO in the 8 years since, despite a house move.

OP I would be a bit more circumspect in expressing your opinions of certification authorities and their employees on here.

Gun forums are monitored by certification departments and as in all social media your content can be used against you.

You have already shown little security awareness on here and speculatively damning a certification officer for which there is no doubt a complaints procedure which would be the correct route for addressing any inadequacies in the process and the employees. Not pub slaver on here.

What you say about the person and what you say other people say about him might or might not be so but this is not the place to resolve it and airing it with the opinionated vehemence you do will do you no favours in the process.

Legal gun ownership is under active attack from many populist quarters as well as the establishment and the only limited defence we have is to be absolutely correct in our behaviour way beyond that which is reasonably required to meet a need for public safety.

You are free to say what you wish here and in this country but as in all our actions we need to be aware of repercussions in overexercising that freedom.