Get­ting a gun li­cence is not that easy. Chair­man of the Firearms Ap­peal Board Is­rael Khan, SC, says there are over 500 ap­peals be­fore the board.How­ev­er, Khan said he was un­aware how many were le­git­i­mate claims, as the board was yet to meet.The board was on­ly ap­point­ed on Oc­to­ber 18 last year, un­der the Firearms (Amend­ment) Act of 2011, to ar­bi­trate on de­ci­sions by the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice not to is­sue li­cences to ap­pli­cants.

The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice can al­so re­voke a per­mit if he is sat­is­fied that the hold­er is of in­tem­per­ate habits or un­sound mind, or oth­er­wise un­fit to be en­trust­ed with a gun. Any­one ag­griev­ed by such a de­ci­sion can ap­peal to the board which has not met since 2008.Khan said it would meet in the next two weeks to be­gin re­view­ing the claims.

Grif­fith agreed it was hard to get a le­gal firearm be­cause of red tape and said many peo­ple com­plained to him about it."Most of them have not got­ten a re­sponse from the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice why they have not got­ten a li­cence. Some peo­ple have heard that the ser­vice lost their ap­pli­ca­tion while oth­ers take two to three years be­fore they can ob­tain a li­cence.

"The bu­reau­crat­ic red tape is too much. You can't have peo­ple on file for four to five years–and even though they fi­nal­ly got it, what if some­thing had hap­pened to them dur­ing those years? Then the bu­reau­crat­ic tape would have been re­spon­si­ble for that. We need to get the sys­tem done prop­er­ly."

The process

Ac­cord­ing to the po­lice Web site, any com­pa­ny, busi­ness group or in­di­vid­ual 25 or over can ap­ply for a firearm-user's li­cence. First, you must get a pro­vi­sion­al li­cence that au­tho­ris­es you to fire a gun at a spe­cif­ic shoot­ing range for train­ing pur­pos­es.Ap­pli­cants must get a cer­tifi­cate of char­ac­ter from the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice not less than three months be­fore the ap­pli­ca­tion date.

The pro­vi­sion­al li­cence ex­pires af­ter two months but ap­pli­cants can ap­ply for an­oth­er.Ali said pro­vi­sion­al li­cence-hold­ers must train and take an ex­am for a cer­tifi­cate of com­pe­tence. They then go back to the CoP who de­ter­mines whether to grant a full li­cence.The per­mit states what types of gun the hold­er is per­mit­ted to ac­quire and how much am­mu­ni­tion he can pur­chase.

What the law says

The Firearms Act says some­one may pur­chase, ac­quire or have in his pos­ses­sion a firearm or am­mu­ni­tion on­ly if he has a li­cence for them.Of­fences and penal­ties un­der the law in­clude:

�2Sell­ing or giv­ing a gun or am­mu­ni­tion to some­one who does not have a li­cence: $50,000 fine or im­pris­on­ment for five years.

�2Shoot­ing in or near a pub­lic place ex­cept in self-de­fence: $10,000 fine .

�2Us­ing a gun while com­mit­ting a crime: ten years' im­pris­on­ment.

�2Hav­ing a gun while drunk or un­der the in­flu­ence of drugs: $20,000 fine and two years' im­pris­on­ment.

�2Any­one con­vict­ed un­der the Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Act, may be re­fused a firearm li­cence for five years from the date of con­vic­tion.