Stuff has an a article outlining just how badly Police are letting down Licensed Firearm Owners with their approach to licensing and re-licensing:
Firearms licence applicants are growing increasingly frustrated as police muddle through 10,000 outstanding applications, some dating as far back as November 2015.
The issue comes as police are facing renewed criticism for inadequately scrutinising the March 15 terrorist before granting him a gun licence.
As of November 13, 5967 first-time applications for a standard firearms licence are waiting to be processed by police, along with 4295 applications from people wanting to renew their licence. Some applications date back years.
One first-time applicant was still waiting after applying on November 17, 2015, while the oldest outstanding application from a previous licence holder was filed on January 25, 2017.
Stuff
This is yet again an appalling dereliction of duty from the Police, who are charged with administering the licensing regime.
You can clearly see why it is that the firearms lobby wants the Police removed from the administering of the Arms Act. It is patently obvious that they can’t handle the job.
According to police, it takes 247 days on average to process a first-time application for a standard licence. Applications for renewals take 147 days on average.
Some applicants claim they have been waiting nearly a year for an outcome.
Those who spoke to Stuff declined to be named for fear of it causing further delays to their applications.
Stuff
That is simply unacceptable. People pay fees for these processes. The Police are clearly not treating these applications, especially renewals, in a timely or proficient manner. It should not take 147 days for licence renewal.
Bear in mind too that Police are seeking to have the licence renewal period brought back to five years instead of ten years. The 147 days of slothful activity would mean 8% of your licence time is taken up by Police incompetence, for which they charge you.
But if it takes on average 147 days then there are a great many licensed firearm owners running around with expired licences through no fault of their own. But you can rest assured that if anything went wrong it would be the LFO charged and not the Police.
I am currently renewing my licence and applying for a collector’s licence, so it will be interesting to see how long it all takes. For reference, my licence is not due to expire until February 2021, so I have got in early. So far communications with the licensing people have been cordial. At a later date, I will write about the obvious flaws in the process and documentation. I am not afraid of putting my name to my observations so let’s see if they want want to play silly buggers with my application.
But this highlights the absurdity of the Police wanting to push ahead with a gun register, something they are surreptitiously trying to do with inspections right now even though it is against the law. They rock up to A Category licence holders and do an inspection, then as they are rummaging around in the safe they ask if they can record serial numbers, which they are not allowed to do.
If they can’t manage the licensing regime for 250,000 firearms owners, then how in hell can they think they will stand up a firearms register and correctly record the details against licences?
Let alone the logistics and silliness involved if they take antique guns into account, many of which have no serial numbers, like Martini Henrys or Sniders. When you then start looking at Lee-Enfields and Mausers from both World Wars, many have mismatched serial numbers or the numbers are degraded by time as to be next to useless.
The Police are failing to handle licence issues and they will compound their incompetence by adding a register on top of that.
My next post will detail the sneaky manner in which Police are looking at bringing about the register.