Police in Sussex want to test an app that would let gun owners start the renewal process using their iPhones.
Part of a £3 million cost-cutting campaign, anyone who wanted to renew shotgun and firearm licenses would start via iPhone, then be visited in person by officers.
Not everyone thinks the streamlining is a good thing.
”We’ve got to be extra careful giving gun licenses,” Lyn Costello, of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (MAMAA), said. ”We have this attitude that gun murders don’t happen very often so its OK to be lax, but it is not OK and we’ve got to do everything in our power to stop it happening again.”
The app in progress might have passed unnoticed but is now part of a heated debate after Derrick Bird, 52, went on a shooting spree in Cumbria with two guns he legally owned and killed 12 people. Anti-gun campaigners are demanding more stringent controls including mental health checks.
Kian de Loach, Sussex Police’s head of multimedia and e-services, said an iPhone app for applying for gun licences would be “saved labor.”
If this model were to be adopted it would not replace officers visiting the applicant, just streamline operations by allowing applicants to start the process online.
“Once an application has been received – either on paper or through an online method – officers would visit the applicant to assess their suitability for a licence renewal,” a spokeswoman for Sussex Police said.
The proposal will be discussed at a police conference in Brighton on June 25.
Via the Telegraph
