Coming clean to the rozzers

I had a call from old friend Rod this morning, telling me that a slightly younger old and mutual friend - James -  has died. He was found by his ex-wife with whom he got on well, because she had not seen him for a few days and lived in the same road.

Recently, every time I hear of the death of a friend or acquaintance I realise I have been thinking about them repeatedly for quite a while before I am told the bad news. I thought of James last night and I thought of calling him the night before. Sometimes a year can go by without him entering my consciousness. 

I am having a clear-out and need to get rid of a bulky gun-cabinet which I have no use for (free to collector - want it?) and I thought that James might want it. Then I guessed that he had enough gun-cabinets for one lifetime so I did not call him.

I held his hand through the gun licence application form to the police. He used to be a very naughty boy in his teens and could not believe that a gun licence would ever be granted to him. One of the things you have to tell the police is whether or not you have ever been convicted of a criminal offence. The idea of grassing yourself up to the police did not sit comfortably with James, and he considered lying by saying 'no'.

I convinced him that it would be worse to lie, as if they ever found out (which they would - they hold the records) they would revoke the licence in any case, so he - with trepidation - put his faith in my advice and their sense of fair play.

If you tick 'yes' on the police form, the next question asked is what the conviction was for. In his case it was for breaking into a chemist at night and stealing drugs. He was only about 13 at the time, and I told him that the crime did not involve violence or threats thereof so all should be well with the application - just so long as he admitted to it.

He was just about to add - in ink - that he was sent to prison for the misdemeanour by writing 'custodial' in the box when I stopped him, saying that even the police would advise you to give no more information to them than is asked for. You can take honesty too far. He got his licence and he got his guns.

A few years ago I made a will and left my three guns to James in it, he being about 12 years younger than me. If you don't leave your guns to a fellow licence holder, the police destroy them after your death and I wanted someone to get the money for them. 

Since I sold all my guns a few years after making the will I began thinking I would re-write it, but there is not much point in that now. I am not sure there ever was.