Short story

gofaster_s13

Just a short(ish) story regarding a shotgun license application, I purchased a shotgun (Browning 525)in March 2007 and applied for a license(Naas Garda station) on the fourth of April 2007. The firearms officer gave me the usual story of two to 6 weeks because phoenix park were snowed under with applications:rolleyes:. About a month later tried ringing the firearms officer and was told application was sent in and she was waiting on word from the Phoenix park. A few more months passed with a lot of phone calls to Naas Garda station and when the phone was actually answered(rang out at least 3/5 times) was proving VERY hard to get a response from the firearms officer. Eventually I rang the supers office and the next day the firearms officer actually rang me:eek: she said that the license had been processed and she gave me a cover letter to collect the gun.
Next stage of the story. I traded the Browning against a Miroku trap gun and went into the station again, a new firearms officer had been appointed and he processed my application. Two days later he rang me and said that no application for the Browning had ever been submitted:eek: So basically I had been using and carrying around an unlicensed firearm. Has anyone on here ever used a cover letter to collect a gun and if so how long did it take to receive the license and where will this leave me with my new application?

foxshooter243

gofaster_s13 wrote: »

Just a short(ish) story regarding a shotgun license application, I purchased a shotgun (Browning 525)in March 2007 and applied for a license(Naas Garda station) on the fourth of April 2007. The firearms officer gave me the usual story of two to 6 weeks because phoenix park were snowed under with applications:rolleyes:. About a month later tried ringing the firearms officer and was told application was sent in and she was waiting on word from the Phoenix park. A few more months passed with a lot of phone calls to Naas Garda station and when the phone was actually answered(rang out at least 3/5 times) was proving VERY hard to get a response from the firearms officer. Eventually I rang the supers office and the next day the firearms officer actually rang me:eek: she said that the license had been processed and she gave me a cover letter to collect the gun.
Next stage of the story. I traded the Browning against a Miroku trap gun and went into the station again, a new firearms officer had been appointed and he processed my application. Two days later he rang me and said that no application for the Browning had ever been submitted:eek: So basically I had been using and carrying around an unlicensed firearm. Has anyone on here ever used a cover letter to collect a gun and if so how long did it take to receive the license and where will this leave me with my new application?

I had a friend who had purchased a brand new 22 lr he made his application and recieved his permit, the following year when the renewals came out he failed to recieve one , he was quite easy going and didnt bother to chase it up , the next year arrived and still no renewal so he decides to go into the station and query it with the FO- it turns out that all record of his firearm was missing as far as the garda were concerned,
cos thay had no record of it whatsoever. he had to make a new application for a permit:D

now as we are on the story, a firearms dealer that i know once sold a rifle
to a fella -a few months past and there was no contact from the would be purchaser so the dealer went ahead and sold the firearm to another guy -guess what happens next both purchasers make contact within a few days of one another to make arrangements to pick up "their" rifle,
yes both had a licence for the same rifle.:D

dont worry your FO will sort this out in very short order;)

Genghiz Cohen

Used a cover letter for a 20 Bore shotgun.
Licence came a few months later.

Hope your's works out soon.

Our man in Havana

The local Gardaí will not issue cover letters at all. It seems mad that some will.
Do these cover letters have any legal cover for shooter or dealer?

gofaster_s13

Just an update on this, I received word on my new firearms cert, after numerous calls to the firearms officer and to the Phoenix park(who were very helpful and actually knew what they were talking about unlike the gaurds). The new cert has been issued but it has the details(serial no. etc) of the gun I had actually traded in, at this stage it is just a display of blatant incompetence on the gaurds behalf:mad:.

rrpc

Bond-007 wrote: »

The local Gardaí will not issue cover letters at all. It seems mad that some will.
Do these cover letters have any legal cover for shooter or dealer?

Yes they do. They're referred to as a 'permit' under section 2(3)(a) of the firearms act.

gofaster_s13

Do you have a link to the full section of that act that covers the cover letters?

IRLConor

gofaster_s13 wrote: »

Do you have a link to the full section of that act that covers the cover letters?

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1925/en/act/pub/0017/sec0002.html

It doesn't say "cover letter" anywhere but that bit (2 (3) (a)) allows you to have a firearm without a firearm certificate if you have a "permit".

That particular part hasn't been amended since 1925, if you want to see that section with all of the amendments since then see:

http://www.wilkinstowntargetshootingclub.org/Documents/FirearmsActAmended/Section_2.html

rrpc

gofaster_s13 wrote: »

Do you have a link to the full section of that act that covers the cover letters?

There's also a full restatement of the firearms acts and amendments joined up as a downloadable Word doc in the Firearms Acts thread here.

Rosahane

...all runs swimmingly:D

I recently had occasion to change the firearm on my NI visitor permit.

- Sent to sponsor in the North who submitted.
- About a week later got a letter stating that application had been received and was being duly processed. The letter stated that this essentially was a cover letter to have and use the new firearm in the interim and purchase ammo.
- Two days later the updated cert arrived:cool: