Firearms - Why should Lincolnshire be different?

Why should the firearm law in Lincolnshire differ to the rest of the UK?

Does Mr Naylor really believe that criminals will apply for a gun licence before committing so called gun crime?

It would be interesting to see the figures on how many gun crimes were committed by licenced gun holders in Lincolnshire in the last five years, to gun crimes committed by non-licenced people.

I note Mr Naylor has not mentioned any plan to deal with the ever growing problem of knife crime; no medical checks to purchase these killer tools.

How many knife crimes in the last five years in Lincolnshire compared to gun crime?

I will look forward to seeing the figures Mr Naylor.

The other issue will be the cost that GP Doctors will charge for providing these records - will it be £20, £100, or £200? Who knows? If Mr Naylor wants this information then he should pay for it.

The last time I renewed my shotgun certificate they said it could take three months. I complained to them and said that I could renew my passport in no more than three weeks, so why does it take so long with my shotgun renewal?

Not being happy with this, I said they needed to get their finger out. Low and behold my certificate came back in well under three months.

Surely adding this medical details issue to gun renewal or new applications will only add more delays to a system which is already in meltdown.

A firearms certificate is needed to purchase ammunition / cartridges etc and should be carried with you when shooting.

How is it possible to do this when the police sit on your certificate for up to three months? And, wait for it, the killer blow comes when they fail to return your certificates before the expiry date. You are then committing a crime because you do not hold a valid firearm certificate for the guns you own.

When this happens you have to get a gun shop to hold your guns for you or put them on a friend’s certificate until your own certificate is returned.

If these people were running a business they would be bankrupt in six months.

I once told a firearms officer that police officers saw the world in a different way to normal people, but he failed to understand the point I was trying to make (Say no more).

We live in a world of equal rights; if 20,000 law abiding gun licence holders in Lincolnshire have to produce their medical records to the police then surely the Deputy Chief Constable Craig Naylor should make his medical records available to the gun licence holders in Lincolnshire.

Hopefully within his records there will be an explanation to how he managed to come up with the idea to penalise 20,000 law abiding citizens in Lincolnshire.

The medical measures Mr Naylor has introduced will do nothing to reduce gun crime in Lincolnshire. (What gun crime??)

May I suggest that if Mr Naylor wishes to address crime in Lincolnshire he should work with people and not against them, and make plans to get more police on the beat because where I live there is more chance of seeing a chicken with teeth walk down the road than a policeman.

G W Stanley

Ludford