Please read these shotgun safety tips
General advice and guidance
- Never put a loaded shotgun away in your cabinet.
- Always prove that a shotgun is unloaded as soon as you handle it.
- Always prove that a shotgun is empty, before handing it to someone else, by offering it to them with the breech open.
- Never load your shotgun indoors.
- Never allow un authorised persons access to your shotgun.
- Never allow unsupervised or unsuitable persons, especially children, access to your shotgun.
- Never leave a shotgun, even unloaded, unattended.
- Never stand a shotgun in such a position that it can fall or be knocked over.
Transporting your shotgun safely.
Always keep your shotgun in its case or cover whilst transporting it and never transport a loaded shotgun.
If staying away from home overnight, your shotgun should be stored, preferably with a Registered Firearms Dealer or in a secure cabinet of another suitable certificate holder.
If it is absolutely necessary to leave your shotgun in a vehicle, it must be stored out of sight, preferably in the locked boot. Consider taking a small part of the weapon, such as the fore-end, with you and always ensure that you lock the vehicle securely.
If this is to be a regular habit, consider having a lockable metal storage case welded inside the vehicle's boot.
Remember, leaving your shotgun in the care of a hotel or guest house patron, even in their safe, may expose them to being in unlawful possession of a shotgun, unless they are also certificate holders.
When applying for the grant of a Shotgun or Firearm certificate it may be best to do nothing in relation to security, until a Firearms Enquiry Officer has paid you a visit.
Part of the reason for the visit, is to assess your domestic security and, maybe, give advice on what improvements will be necessary to allow you to keep weapons at home.
The Firearms Acts are not specific regarding security except to state that the weapons must be kept safe and secure at all times, so as to prevent, as far as is reasonably practical, un authorised access.
However, before granting you a certificate, the Chief Officer of Police needs to be satisfied that you can store them safely. It therefore follows that the issuer of the certificate must set the standards to be met, within the limitations of the Acts.
When it comes to domestic security another British Standard is used as a guide. That is BS8220 (Security of Domestic Dwellings), which is the level of security normally required by reputable Insurance Companies for house contents cover.
It is believed that the security of the weapon is second only to the vetting of the applicant. If it requires a British Standard to insure that your jewellery and valuables are safe, then it is not too much to expect Shotguns and Firearms to be kept at the same level of security.
You will not be asked to turn your home into a fortress; only to meet a standard of security which modern day requirements deem necessary to keep one's ordinary possessions safe.
Basically, BS8220 requires the fitting of a five lever mortice dead lock (to BS3621) to the final exit door (normally the front door). All accessible opening windows which offer an aperture large enough to be climbed through, should be capable of being locked with a removable key. Rear doors should be secured by mortice or slide bolts and patio doors fitted with anti-lift bolts.
Many people in the past have spent unnecessarily regarding security. It will undoubtedly be best to await the visit of an Enquiry Officer, who will give you all the necessary advice, to allow you to keep your weapons safely at home.