Any new UK firearms restrictions?

Tony wrote: They are proposing to have unanounced "visits" possibly to try and catch out people storing weapons and ammunition incorrectly. This has been slipped in under the guise of prevention of terrorism act. Totally unworkable due to loss of staff and firearms owners being out at work, so they'll have to ring and arrange a day and time to visit. Some feos try and interpret the guidance lines to suit themselves which just makes more work for them in the long run, they don't realise if we have good reason for wanting a wepon of a particular calibre ( say 222 or 223 for fox ) and good reason is given then it's a no brainer they can't refuse. I'm lucky I got hold of a Parker Hale  sporterised 303 some weeks ago I provided good reason and the turnround time was 3 days which is something of a record. But I do have a good working relationship with the firearms dept staff, they know me and my son and trust us to do the right thing.

Much is being said about this "Unanounced Checks by FEOs" on several of the other UK shooting forums and I have to agree with Tony that in the vast majority of cases it is unworkable due to staff cut backs and registered gun owners being out at work during the day time.

I guess it slackened off a bit since my time. It was usually an average of once a year. (Maybe they didn't trust me as much as they trust you)!

It is interesting that the UK limits how much ammo, primers, and powder.  I live right next to Chicago.  A place with an unsavory history.  Many murders are committed there. Mostly gang and drug related.  The perpetrators usually have one stolen pistol with a few cartridges.Those who have 20 or 30 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammo, thousands of primers, and many pounds of powder just protect their families, hunt or put holes in paper.

We do care.  Maybe not so much when one gang does another, but a lot of innocents are killed.  When a mom crying over her little girl is on the news you feel sincere sadness.  There are definitely places you don't go in Chicago.  Same in New York, Boston, Toronto, etc.

25-5 wrote: It is interesting that the UK limits how much ammo, primers, and powder.  I live right next to Chicago.  A place with an unsavory history.  Many murders are committed there. Mostly gang and drug related.  The perpetrators usually have one stolen pistol with a few cartridges. Those who have 20 or 30 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammo, thousands of primers, and many pounds of powder just protect their families, hunt or put holes in paper.

 Again I'm 1 of the lucky ones. My ammo limit is 500 of each calibre, my son has the same limits so potentially we could have 1,000 rounds of each calibre at any 1 time in the house. Soft nosed ammo comes under section 5 and you have to have specific permission for it or the gun dealers won't supply it, primers aren't a problem, I usually buy 1000 at a time and powder is the same though they do suggest we don't have more than 6 kilos of powder at any 1 time due to fire hazards which is reasonable. The craziest comment I ever heard was years ago when I was based in Liverpool. I asked for an allocation of soft nosed 243 ammo to zero the rifle sights and was refused, their comment was " It's illegal to shoot people with soft nosed ammo!" I pointed out I hadn't shot anybody unlike the police who had just shot a guy for waving a Katana around in the street. Target ammo can be purchased mail order but you must buy soft nosed ammo face to face. As we all know soft nosed or FMJ it makes no difference if you intend to do some harm so figure that reasoning out. The daftest thing is shotgun ammo, there's no restriciton on how much you can buy and keep, if I was of a mind and had the storage space I could buy a pallet load and nobody would question it. I dunno about the US and other countries but here the favourite weapon for armed robberies is a sawn off. Semi auto weapons are a definate no no apart from 22 rimfire rifles. Moderators/ silencers for any cal rifle are easy to obtain. You just say health and safety/ hearing damage and they agree to you having them on your ticket. I'm prepared to bet a months pension if you asked for a silencer over in the USA there'd be uproar and anyone who was lucky enough to get 1 would be watched like a hawk. It's swings and roundabouts  if you play the authorities game there are loopholes we can use to get what we want eventually.

There is no permit to have suppressors, only the tax stamp. At least that's how my state works. You have to wait on a background check and pay the tax, that's all.

Speaking of trusts, they will get you around some of the red tape. Lawyers will set them up for you for around $300.

Tony wrote: The daftest thing is shotgun ammo, there's no restriciton on how much you can buy and keep