The fact is that Guns are lethal weapons and the Licensing Protocols should be there to protect the public and indeed the gun owner, alike. These Protocols should stand up to scrutiny and comply with Public Safety Rules.
It, therefore, makes no sense that some areas require medical verification and others do not. Public safety should be uniform and apply to all of the UK wherever you live.
At the time of writing, only half of the firearms departments in the country require Medical Certificates to accompany a Shotgun or Firearms Licence application.
These are:-
- Bedfordshire
- Cambridgeshire
- Cheshire
- Derbyshire
- Essex
- Gloucestershire
- Manchester
- Gwent
- Hertfordshire
- Kent
- Lancashire
- Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Merseyside
- Nottinghamshire
- Surrey
- Sussex
- Thames Valley Police
If you live in one of these areas you will need a Medical Certificate for your Shotgun Licence application.
However, this disparity is likely to be ironed out shortly, so that there is uniformity across the regions.
ShootCert understands that there will be an increase in demand for Medical Certificates when, in the next few months, there will be a publication of new statutory guidance by the Home Office. Its content will most probably include a requirement for all applicants to submit medical verification. This may well effectively double demand as ALL, rather than just the current half of police forces, will insist on this medical input.
We welcome the logical uniformity that this will bring.
As it stands at the moment there is also no standardised Medical Proforma that different firearms departments require. They all have their own autonomy and every region has a different verification form that they like to use.
Whilst there are some questions that are common to all there are regional variations in the additional questions that the doctor must answer. Perhaps this will be standardised in the future.
Either way, ShootCert welcomes that in the future the medical input will be the same wherever you live so that Public Safety can be better for all.