The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Subject to any exemption under this Act, it is an offence for a person— .

(a)to have in his possession, or to purchase or acquire, a firearm to which this section applies without holding a firearm certificate in force at the time, or otherwise than as authorised by such a certificate; .

(b)to have in his possession, or to purchase or acquire, any ammunition to which this section applies without holding a firearm certificate in force at the time, or otherwise than as authorised by such a certificate, or in quantities in excess of those so authorised. .

(2)It is an offence for a person to fail to comply with a condition subject to which a firearm certificate is held by him.

To me, purchase means to make an exchange, otherwise you have simply made a down payment on it, but I can see where the over zealous FEO might think he had a point when your read the above.

I guess its the difference between Acquire and Purchase? The outcome of either is the same (You now have in your possession something you cannot legally own).

How does this work regarding say, a gun being purchased as a present? The purchaser may never touch the thing but has purchased it for the recipient?

The bottom line to me would be that you had it in your possession un licenced (as the offence and even that is open regarding the loan of firearms as Iian WR pointed out to me recently), how you aquired it is (to me) as much (if not more) a sanction against the RFD or person selling/giving it.

Its just another one of those silly bits that can be interpreted but should not be. One for the next re-think I guess.

I cant see a problem, all you are doing is reserving the thing. Even if you have taken away a receipt, if it is not for the full asking price, how is that a sale?

SILLY SILLY SILLY

Best advice, speak to the FEO "BEFORE" you act or the NRA:good:

The difference between 'purchase' and 'acquire' in the context of the Act is simply whether you had to pay for it or not i.e. Gifts, inheritance etc

I've paid full price for guns plenty of times and then had them sent to a local RFD until I get my variation.

Possession is everything.

My take on this is that although the Firearms act says "purchase", it really means "have in your possession". Could I for instance, contact my Sec5 dealer, buy a Bren gun and have it delivered to him.

Providing it didn't leave his armoury (and I didn't touch it, being really pedantic).... I would have to have more money than sense and require a check up from the neck up to do this, but would it be legal??

I suppose you might leave the door open for people to become de facto arms dealers through other people and that could potentially be a very bad thing in this day and age.

I do not have the details but have been told by an ex-feo friend of mine that there was a prosecution for this offence by the MPS in the 90's.

Its got nothing to do with possession but selling which includes taking payment or part payment ?

Is this all down to intent?

The deposit is nothing more than a promise to buy, the deposit does not necessarily form the first installment. There's nothing wrong with leaving a deposit for a firearm.

Deposit - "A sum payable as a first installment on the purchase of something or as a pledge for a contract, the balance being payable later."

As said earlier, don't confuse contract law, or even common sense, with firearms law.

This would never go to court, despite all the scaremongering.

HALODIN wrote:This would never go to court, despite all the scaremongering.

Very probably not but where it can possibly cause serious problems for the buyer is if the seller goes bust before he gets the necessary variation and a liquidator is involved.