Worried for friend

Alpha58

pukkamum wrote: »

just how many guns would be a worry or illegal? Is just the fact of the boy having the gun in his room cause enough?

Answer: one firearm is a cause for great concern. Since the Dunblane incident, pistols are ILLEGAL and there is no sane or reasonable excuse for having them in a domestic house. Shotguns can be legal but there are strict licensing requirements - they need to be registered, kept in a special safe, stored apart from ammunition - the list is long. For a child to have a firearm in his room is outrageous. If they are replica weapons or are deactivated, this is just as bad - there are very strict controls even on weapons which cannot be fired.

Not for me to state whether the owner is sane or not but you have a moral responsibility to tell the Police. Don't worry about him knowing who this came from - if "Jill" has told you, she has told others and the children almost certainly will have told someone.

If you find this difficult, try imagining one of those all-too-frequent scenarios where a man with a gun starts randomly shooting strangers and then kills himself, sometimes with the family. I'm not saying it will happen, but imagine how you would deal with your conscience if it did?

If there is nothing untoward, the Police would check and then leave him alone. Otherwise, you may well avert something awful. Think about it.

itsanne

Errata wrote: »

The OP is posting regularly on lots of other threads, so clearly she's no longer worried about this one.

She might not be, but if the situation hasn't changed maybe she should be.

Knowing what she does imposes a degree of responsibility, not only for her own children but for anyone else who could be harmed. I know the possible consequences only too well.

itsanne

Alpha58 wrote: »

Answer: one firearm is a cause for great concern. Since the Dunblane incident, pistols are ILLEGAL and there is no sane or reasonable excuse for having them in a domestic house. Shotguns can be legal but there are strict licensing requirements - they need to be registered, kept in a special safe, stored apart from ammunition - the list is long. For a child to have a firearm in his room is outrageous. If they are replica weapons or are deactivated, this is just as bad - there are very strict controls even on weapons which cannot be fired.

Not for me to state whether the owner is sane or not but you have a moral responsibility to tell the Police. Don't worry about him knowing who this came from - if "Jill" has told you, she has told others and the children almost certainly will have told someone.

If you find this difficult, try imagining one of those all-too-frequent scenarios where a man with a gun starts randomly shooting strangers and then kills himself, sometimes with the family. I'm not saying it will happen, but imagine how you would deal with your conscience if it did?

If there is nothing untoward, the Police would check and then leave him alone. Otherwise, you may well avert something awful. Think about it.

^ ^ ^ Exactly!