Can the council forbid me from owning a gun?
A reader who has been a council tenant for more than 20 years now has a problem. What's the legal advice?
Q: My council has brought in a tenancy rule that prohibits anyone owning and storing a gun in any of its properties. Can they enforce this legally? I have been a tenant for more than 20 years and always had guns in my rented council property without problem.
A: I don’t often say this when I am writing for Sporting Gun but in this case I suggest you consult a solicitor. In my view such a rule would be contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights.
You’re entitled to the quiet enjoyment of your possessions and nobody, government official or otherwise, can take that away from you without a proper right of appeal.
It would appear there is no effective right of appeal in this case.
There’s also the practical issue of how such a condition is enforced.
How are they going to know and what are they going to do in the unlikely event they find out?
There’s no justification for this sort of decision as your guns will be in a secure storage and sporting ammunition is not particularly dangerous when in storage.
