The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) and the Home Office are to be congratulated on the new and very much simpler licence application form that came into effect at the beginning of December.
Clear, concise and easy to understand, the new form is a huge improvement. Gone, for example, is all the old fussiness associated with seeking out a professionally qualified person, in favour of a simpler requirement for referees. The new form recognises that much has changed, especially where data collection is concerned, since the now replaced version came into being more than 12 years ago.
Now all that remains is for the Home Office to show a similarly modern approach to the request from BASC; for the current term of a shotgun licence or firearms certificate be extended from five years to ten. Here, too, the ability of the police to act fast when a transgression is brought to their notice has altered markedly since the last change (from three to five years) in 1995.