Bizarre phone call from firearms team

PeeJay · Nov 29, 2024

My friend (genuinely, this isn’t me, it’s a shooting buddy) has had his licence about 6-8 months. No issues, we go once a month, all good and above board. He bought a gun within the first month, from a registered gun dealer. He sent all the paperwork in recorded delivery. He’s a member of the local ground. He stores the gun at home, in a safe, all fitted correctly.

Suddenly today, out of the blue, he had a phone call from the firearms team. They asked him if he knew a named person (he’s never heard of him). They asked him when he bought his gun, where from, where it’s stored, etc.

Has anyone experienced this before. Is it part of random checks or for some reason is it directed at him. He’s puzzled as you can imagine.

MartynB · Nov 29, 2024

Doubt it’s sinister . Might be something as simple as the same make of gun has been registered to someone else with the same serial number as your mate’s gun due to an error . Or your mate bought a second hand gun and the transfer off the other blokes certificate never happened due to an error or forgetfulness .

They obviously received his paperwork as they’ve phoned him .

PeeJay · Nov 29, 2024

MartynB said:
Doubt it’s sinister . Might be something as simple as the same make of gun has been registered to someone else with the same serial number as your mate’s gun due to an error . Or your mate bought a second hand gun and the transfer off the other blokes certificate never happened due to an error or forgetfulness .

They obviously received his paperwork as they’ve phoned him .

Yes, it was a second hand gun, bought at the shooting ground, but I can see how an error could creep in. I’ll tell him not to worry until there’s something to worry about. He was thinking there’ll be unannounced callers, although as everything is as it should be, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Paul120 · Nov 29, 2024

I doubt it's sinister. Something similar has happened to me. The gun may have been placed with a dealer for sale and sold quickly. The paperwork may have got out of sync. If you freind was quick with the paperwork he may have registered the gun before the named person has informed the police of the transfer/sale to the dealer.

PeeJay · Nov 30, 2024

Paul120 said:
I doubt it's sinister. Something similar has happened to me. The gun may have been placed with a dealer for sale and sold quickly. The paperwork may have got out of sync. If you freind was quick with the paperwork he may have registered the gun before the named person has informed the police of the transfer/sale to the dealer.

We’re going this morning so I’m going to let him know. It does make sense that something got out of sync somewhere with the process.

Jonny English · Nov 30, 2024

The firearms team lose track of guns all the time. Owner of a gunshop told me not so many years ago that the local police force used to ring up 2 or 3 times a week to try and trace a gun as they had lost the details.

PeeJay · Nov 30, 2024

When I met him this morning, he said that when he bought the gun (used) they told him it had only just come in that week. So it sounds like a process error. It’s helped put his mind at ease.

R@OSG · Dec 1, 2024

PeeJay said:
My friend (genuinely, this isn’t me, it’s a shooting buddy) has had his licence about 6-8 months. No issues, we go once a month, all good and above board. He bought a gun within the first month, from a registered gun dealer. He sent all the paperwork in recorded delivery. He’s a member of the local ground. He stores the gun at home, in a safe, all fitted correctly.

Suddenly today, out of the blue, he had a phone call from the firearms team. They asked him if he knew a named person (he’s never heard of him). They asked him when he bought his gun, where from, where it’s stored, etc.

Has anyone experienced this before. Is it part of random checks or for some reason is it directed at him. He’s puzzled as you can imagine.

We (shop) get calls from the police frequently trying to fill in gaps in ownership, because somewhere along the line someone hasn't informed them promptly enough or they simply haven't checked their emails.

It is likely that the gun was being sold on behalf of someone else as a sale or return. The owner hasn't informed the police that the gun was at the shop for sale, and the police had a notification from you and the shop to say that it had changed hands.

PeeJay · Dec 1, 2024

R@OSG said:
We (shop) get calls from the police frequently trying to fill in gaps in ownership, because somewhere along the line someone hasn't informed them promptly enough or they simply haven't checked their emails.

It is likely that the gun was being sold on behalf of someone else as a sale or return. The owner hasn't informed the police that the gun was at the shop for sale, and the police had a notification from you and the shop to say that it had changed hands.

I’m thinking that’s exactly what’s happened.

Lukeypoodle · Dec 1, 2024

R@OSG said:
We (shop) get calls from the police frequently trying to fill in gaps in ownership, because somewhere along the line someone hasn't informed them promptly enough or they simply haven't checked their emails.

It is likely that the gun was being sold on behalf of someone else as a sale or return. The owner hasn't informed the police that the gun was at the shop for sale, and the police had a notification from you and the shop to say that it had changed hands.

Apparently also the list they work off shows only name, force, date acquired.

So if you have the same name as another license holder they get confused.

Skeet UK · Friday at 6:52 PM

When my mate and I bought our first 'new' guns, they were both Browning 425's with consecutive serial numbers.
After some years, my mate emigrated so I took his gun and sold it for him.
About 6 months later, having nobody to shoot with and being young and skint...I sold my one.
Got a phonecall from the FLO, asking hadn't I sold that gun a while back?

All very nice, explained it to them and they then noticed the serial number was only one different.

westley · 2024-12-21T22:33:20+0000

It is for this very reason that I keep a hard copy of everything I do on-line to the Firearms Dept. At my last renewal, I was sent my new Certificate. On it was a gun that I had sold over 12 months previously. I had notified the Firearms Dept. of this and had printed off the confirmation email. I had the hard copy to hand when I telephoned the FEO. I was accused of failing to notify them, and was getting a bit of a telling off. I let him rant for a few minutes, then I quoted the reference number of the notification. There was a silence, followed by profuse apologies. It is not the first time this has occurred, hence my keeping hard copy.

Bizarre phone call from firearms team

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