Dear All,
Having followed this thread for a while, thought Id share my experiences in relation to it.
I was unfortunately on the receiving end of a similar visit back in 2001.
At that time I had quite a large and diverse collection of inert ordnance, that I have now slimmed down for both practical purposes (space constraints) and as a result of the visit (to ensure that what I collect has a much reduced chance of accidently being somehow deemed illegal in law).
I have to say the visit was triggered by what must really be considered poor intelligence I had bought some .45 & 9mm bullets on ebay to load into some fired cases for display purposes. This had been picked up by the authorities and somehow flagged as a reason for the visit (I would not use the word raid, as the officers who where involved did certainly not behave any heavy handed way whatsoever). The time period was at that of a certain amount of anti-terrorist intelligence hysteria, perhaps not surprisingly as a result of the dreadful Twin Towers Tragedy.
My ebay purchase combined with the fact that I have an Asian surname seemed to have resulted in somebody putting two plus two together and tasking my local Police force on a quite large scale effort to visit my bungalow, located on the South coast. I should say at this point that the Police officers and EOD Personnel who were involved that day behaved immaculately and were polite, courteous and professional. I certainly had no cause for complaint with them, but rather those who triggered the visit really ought to have done better.
I wont detail how I found out about the actual visit, as I dont want to sound disparaging to the Police, who I know have a very difficult job to do in this area. Suffice to say I found out about the visit through an unofficial source, whereupon I speedily headed home, to be met by a rather surprised group of officers when I turned up. The road had been closed and they were awaiting arrival of EOD.
I have to admit to being somewhat nave as to taking the opinion I had nothing to hide and as well as my collection in the house (out of sight) had in my garden shed (with windows) easily noticeable, some 2 Mortar inert smoke bombs recovered as part of an organised range clearance and removed by me with official sanction (for which I had the paperwork).
The net result of the visit was of course that it was an extremely unpleasant experience (again not due to the officers behaviour just the thing itself). Once I clearly explained what I had and why and the purpose of the ebay purchase! It became obvious that the visit had been as a result of very poor intelligence. I had nothing illegal (all my collection is inert), was neither cautioned, arrested or anything else. The officers put everything back and left. Nothing was ever said or mentioned again in relation to this visit, although I did stay in touch with my local firearms officer after the event for a while.
The moral of this story is that if you collect ordnance you have to be aware that this sort of thing may happen. In relation to the law, you have to be whiter than white and adhere strictly to the obvious definitions of the law. I would hope that people who know me as an individual, on this forum from the official side, would agree that I am always keen to promote this viewpoint, whenever I get the chance!
Here does comes a problem though, as well all know, the law in many areas is not clearly defined and in many areas and of course rather rigorously defined (trace elements of explosive in items manufactured to explode but now de-activated, could now be deemed as cause for concern).
It became obvious during the visit that the complexity and variety of my collection was far beyond the knowledge of the EOD personnel sent to check my collection. This is not meant to be disparaging to them, but the reason as collectors we collect, is that we are often experts in our field and really only another expert may be able to identify what we have. The remit of the EOD personnel in this instance was to ensure that what I had was simply not dangerous, rather than as experts in law, and to determine exactly what I had and was it legal to own.
Perhaps now is the time to start a serious conversation in relation to a defined FFE process. I believe in the USA it is possible to own a collectors licence, maybe this is an option here.
As a responsible group, maybe we as BOCN ought to be helping to drive this, as this forum as an entity, contains experience and opinions from an official and individual perspective.
If you have taken the time to read this I hope you are still awake and maybe respond with some ideas to help us all out, so both sides can act in a clearly defined legal, moral and ethical way in the field of ordnance collecting. Collectors have much to offer as responsible individuals. Every element of society has rogue elements and we as responsible collectors have a right to drive these people out of our discipline. I have to say, after the trauma of my visit, I did take a long hard look at myself and ask why I collect what I do and had to justify this to myself. I was happy that I was able to do so. This is something that perhaps is worth doing periodically for all of us maybe!
Best Regards
Mark
