The "Need to have" FAC query

[easypeasy 4]

Ive been wondering about whether anyone has been turned down for a FAC for not fullfilling "the need" criteria. What im getting at is, you get permission off a landowner, but it is not your land so really you dont have the need to possess a firearm to clear vermin off someone elses land. I know the farmer has said you can do it, but has anyone come across a nightmare FLO whos claimed you dont need an FAC because its not your land.

[matt_hooks 188]

It's not "need" that's required, it's "reasonable cause to hold". Chapter 13, section 6 of the HO document "Firearms licencing, guidance to police" states that

 

13.6 “Good reason†should be neither

confined to need nor equated with desire.

 

So you categorically do NOT need to prove a "need", only a good reason!

[halamrose 24]

And your permission slip is all the evidence required. My FEO likes you to use their 'Land Authority' form. It may be helpful if the permission slip mentions rifles. I think there needs to be the declared quarry on the land.

[matt_hooks 188]

And your permission slip is all the evidence required. My FEO likes you to use their 'Land Authority' form. It may be helpful if the permission slip mentions rifles. I think there needs to be the declared quarry on the land.

 

Well, if the stated quarry is wild boar, and you live in an area where wild boar have never been heard of, then it probably won't wash, but most quarry species are transient to a certain extent, so there only needs to be the reasonable expectation that you will encounter them on the land at some point, you don't have to prove that they live there.

 

Of course, if the deer decide to play ball and put on a show for the FEO it always looks good, but it's difficult to arrange.

 

If you tell them that you have the desired quarry, they'd have trouble disproving it.

 

Have a read of that link I put up, makes for interesting reading, and is good to have printed out when the FEO comes round. That way you can ask him why his force choose not to follow the HO guidance if he's being a bit unreasonable.