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

Received this from the Secretary of one of the Clubs I'm a member of......

You will recall that I circulated the article below last week (sic. The MLAGB notification of West Mercia's notification of new guidelines). I received a reply from a member who has asked me to make you aware of what could happen.

"My son in law, Ian, has just applied for his shotgun cert. He is 44, ex Navy and holds down a responsible job with a huge salary as a business systems expert.

His GP got a letter with a copy of the new regulations (although they don't come in until tomorrow). He was summoned to the GP and asked a lot of questions. He recalls answering the question about alcohol by saying that he "has a couple of pints of beer most evenings".

Ian's certificate was refused because "his alcohol consumption was over the guidelines"

I relate this story because the same question could catch most of us out, although I suspect that his GP is particularly anti shooting.

You are welcome to pass the story around other members so they don't fall into the same trap."

Go over the Government prescribed limit and you're in bother (all starting to get super 1984-ish now). The limit is 14 units per week. 1 pint can have anywhere from 1-4 units in depending on what you're drinking. 'Normal' strength lager has 2 units per pint, therefore 2 pints x 7 nights = 28 units, which is double the recommended limit

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/check-the- ... guidelines

"I rarely drink so I couldn't give you a weekly figure Doctor"

Great, glad he got weeded out the system.
We cant have people that drink that much handling firearms.

Mark

Been trying very hard to post and image of the BMA guidance to doctors regarding FAC/SGC applications but the site won't let me even though I've resized it down to 500x800!

Put it on photobucket or similar and link to it here.

One very important point with the application where GP's are involved is that the GP does NOT decide if someone can or cannot be accepted. The GP passes information to the firearms dept who make a decision.
Unless the firearms dept specifically said that the drinking was the reason for refusal, then it could have been for something else.

Mark

bigfathairybiker wrote:One very important point with the application where GP's are involved is that the GP does NOT decide if someone can or cannot be accepted. The GP passes information to the firearms dept who make a decision.
Unless the firearms dept specifically said that the drinking was the reason for refusal, then it could have been for something else.

Mark

+1.

I'm not saying that the OP isn't accurately reporting what he was told, but I'm yet to see one of these "certificate refused or revoked for X" type of stories posted online where there wasn't substantially more than was given at first.

In fact, a similar story springs to mind (not sure if it was on here or on airgunbbs) about someone who made an obviously-joking throw away sort of comment at the end of an unrelated GP consultation about drinking a vast amount of booze (or something similar, perhaps about being an alcoholic or something). Apparently (so the original story went) this one throw away comment with no basis in fact was enough for the police to instantly revoke the guy's tickets in a very heavy handed manner with no consultation. Naturally, the poster was enquiring about means of appeal for his mate.

It turned out the guy in question was an alcoholic, think 14 pints a night sort of thing.

Intemperate behaviour could be deemed to be a drink every day even if it was a small glass of red with an evening meal.

Trying this for the BMA doxument...

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y33 ... okimke.jpg

sharps4065 wrote:Trying this for the BMA doxument...

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y33 ... okimke.jpg

I'll be the one to say "that looks pretty sensible", provided it's interpreted correctly by the GPs (especially the "notify police if GP objects to firearms ownership").