Shotgun certificate and speeding.

[Eleven]

My five-year shotgun certificate renewal inspection today.

This time round I was asked a long list of questions about how much I drink, whether I've ever hit a policeman, whether I've ever thought about killing myself. I was told that I didn't have to answer these questions but the police may consider me uncooperative if I didn't. I initially declined on the basis of privacy, but then relented so as not to be a pain in the arse for the poor chap.

However we then came onto the matter of criminal prosecutions. I said I'd had a few speeding convictions over several decades of driving and he said, "yes, one was 92 mph on the motorway. We consider you a more risky shotgun holder because of it. If you're prepared to take risks like that you might be prepared to take risks with a gun".

I must say I was a little surprised by the intrusiveness of the questions and the lecture.

[Eleven]

ging84 said:

how long ago was the conviction you told him about?

I didn't tell him, he'd got the information with him. It was last year, prior to which my licence had been clean for 5 years or so.

[Eleven]

jshell said:

This topic came up a few years ago. When I last renewed FAC & SGC I was told that speeding offences point to a certain 'attitude', and too many speeding offences would count against renewal. Not necessarily prevent renewal, but would be taken into consideration.

I Googled it afterwards and found an article about some chap in Scotland who got refused renewal based on multiple motoring offences. He appealed unsuccessfully.

[Eleven]

LordHaveMurci said:

Renewed mine at the end of last year, seems they have tightened up on a few things.

The woman who did my inspection told me they now write to your GP to see if you have any history or depression etc, something they rarely did before. Your GP is now obligated to inform them if anything changes, they weren't before so in theory you could be granted a shotgun cert. for five years then go loopy & nobody would know until it came up for renewal

It seems that all and sundry now have access to one's medical records and doctors aren't necessarily careful how they word things on file. So a benign comment can be misconstrued accidentally or otherwise by an interested party. I took life insurance about 4 years ago and had a world of inconvenience because of a badly worded comment by a GP relating to medicine.

It somewhat flies in the face of the advice "if you're feeling depressed talk to your doctor".

[Eleven]

OpulentBob said:

Eleven said:

LordHaveMurci said:

Renewed mine at the end of last year, seems they have tightened up on a few things.

The woman who did my inspection told me they now write to your GP to see if you have any history or depression etc, something they rarely did before. Your GP is now obligated to inform them if anything changes, they weren't before so in theory you could be granted a shotgun cert. for five years then go loopy & nobody would know until it came up for renewal

It seems that all and sundry now have access to one's medical records and doctors aren't necessarily careful how they word things on file. So a benign comment can be misconstrued accidentally or otherwise by an interested party. I took life insurance about 4 years ago and had a world of inconvenience because of a badly worded comment by a GP relating to medicine.

It somewhat flies in the face of the advice "if you're feeling depressed talk to your doctor".

My friend's father has had his certificates revoked as he is on anti-depressants following redundancy and a divorce last year. He's happy to be away from the ex-wife ("She looks like a bag of spanners but she could cook.") but the lack of work is hurting him. And he's now lost his most favoured hobby. I can understand why they did it but you only have to speak to the guy to know his "depression" is actually just frustration at his age and his situation, and he's about as risky as a feather covered in bubble wrap.

My recent experiences mean that if I ever do think I am depressed the last person I am likely to speak to is my doctor!

[Eleven]

Breadvan72 said:

So, being able to have a gun is more important than maintaining good mental health? Righty ho.

It's one of two things. Either I take the view that when one is mentally disturbed it's really useful to have a gun.

Or my comment didn't relate to gun ownership and actually something else that I mention only about two posts earlier.

[Eleven]

Breadvan72 said:

Eleven said:

Breadvan72 said:

So, being able to have a gun is more important than maintaining good mental health? Righty ho.

It's one of two things. Either I take the view that when one is mentally disturbed it's really useful to have a gun.

Or my comment didn't relate to gun ownership and actually something else that I mention only about two posts earlier.

OK then, being able to buy insurance without bother is more important than good mental health?

It's possible to have both without speaking to one's GP. Private medical records are now sufficiently not confidential that I am unlikely ever to see my GP about anything remotely likely to cause me future problems. It's wrong that it should be so, but there you go.

I think I am right in saying your profession used to have legal privilege but now you have to report a client if he or she tells you certain things.

It's fast becoming the case that it's probably only safe to discuss things with one's mother.

[Eleven]

mph1977 said:

very few people outside of NHS funded health have direct access to your heatlh records, the vast majority of Access to patient identifiable Health Records is via a request to the relevant responsibile clinician for disclosure with the full informed consent of the patient ...

Yes, but what is on your record is then seemingly make or break in some situations. If you've not been diagnosed with an illness you can correctly state that you haven't. If you are either diagnosed or its noted that you have presented with certain symptoms which are suspected to be associated with a specific condition you have to disclose it.

[Eleven]

Jasandjules said:

Eleven, I see your misconstrued comment and raise you a HIV test. I have no idea WTF the GP was doing that day but I had some bloods done, went back a few weeks later for the results to be told good news, I don't have HIV. When I asked why a HIV test had been done without my knowledge the GP went white as a sheet (it was a different person) and said did I not go through some counselling etc!?!?.... No, no need for that as my range of bloods was nothing to do with HIV.

I have no idea if this will ever affect anything I do.

I've had a few HIV tests. I am not in any high risk group. The tests have never affected anything.

[Eleven]

robinessex said:

One day, I'm going to finish Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli's, the Prince. Did I get the apostrophe wrong?

You going to finish him with a shotgun?

[Eleven]

julian64 said:

Jasandjules said:

Eleven, I see your misconstrued comment and raise you a HIV test. I have no idea WTF the GP was doing that day but I had some bloods done, went back a few weeks later for the results to be told good news, I don't have HIV. When I asked why a HIV test had been done without my knowledge the GP went white as a sheet (it was a different person) and said did I not go through some counselling etc!?!?.... No, no need for that as my range of bloods was nothing to do with HIV.

I have no idea if this will ever affect anything I do.

Erum yes thats quite serious. And yes it will affect you in the future.

How?

[Eleven]

Interesting. All I can say is that I have had a few HIV tests for reasons other than being sexually promiscuous and have never had special terms or loading applied to insurance.