Do police need to be firearms qualified to take your guns?

The law allows any constable to seize a firearm.

By Shooting legal advice

Friday, 02 October 2009

If a police officer is required to take a firearm from you, surely they must be firearms qualified? Many police officers are not sure about firearms and wouldn’t know if a gun is loaded. Who is responsible? I thought we, as licence holders, are at all times responsible for a firearm.

You can’t even tell the wife where the cabinet keys are so where do we stand?

Shooting legal advice
DAVID FROST:
The law allows any constable to seize a firearm and does not specify what qualification, if any, he needs to have.

That is a matter for the police management to sort out, but no doubt concerns over health and safety play a part.

Theoretically any policeman should be able to access details of your firearms in a short space of time but I don’t believe the national database is good enough for this to be a foolproof solution.

It saves everyone a lot of time and hassle if you have your certificate with you or near to hand whenever you are out with a gun.

If the police do seize your guns the responsibility for their care and safe custody lies with them from the moment they take them from you.

You should be given a written receipt and you should take care to note the condition of the guns in case they are returned to you with any damage.