Fishing and Shooting

Because I have guns and use them, it was thought I would know what do with a relative's guns after he died a few months ago.

I never knew how many guns he owned, but he certainly had a very nice unadorned Westley Richards side-by-side 12-bore shotgun and a lightsome 28.

I would lay odds on there being a .410 or two in the cabinet and I know there was a workaday .22 rifle, quite apart from a blunderbuss and a terrifying short musket with a folding bayonet that used to give me nightmares as a child.

The question was, could the family hold on to all these guns?

The omens were hardly propitious. The widow did not have a shotgun or firearms certificate.

All the family live in the south and no one shoots. It seemed that if the family wanted to hang onto the guns they would have to farm them out to friends and relations with the right credentials.

Enter the British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC). Ah yes, said the BASC chirpily, we get this sort of thing all the time.

No problem at all; no reason the widow should not be granted a certificate to keep the guns, whether or not she wants to use them. Unless, of course, she is bonkers. Well quite. But that simple?

Maybe I'm too suspicious but I always felt I was walking on eggshells when it came to renewing a shotgun certificate. One slip and they'd confiscate the lot. (The form asks if you are of sound mind and a surprising number of applicants, usually struggling hill farmers, put down a question mark, which is sad but heartening). Nonetheless, following BASC advice, a temporary "Section 7 " paper transfer from "the deceased" to one of his executors was arranged by the local police so that the guns could stay legal without having to be moved.

Come the day, rather than discourage the widow from keeping the guns as I had gloomily expected, the local firearms officer who formed up to see what was what, appeared almost eager she should keep them – if that was what she wanted. "Only here to assist and carry out your wishes ... entirely up to you … everything we can do … sad loss." It was rather refreshing. At one point I wondered if he wasn't almost suggesting she might like to add a few extra guns to the collection. Ever thought of a semi-automatic Beretta madam?

Perfect for pigeons. Not quite. But you get my drift. Now she has a shotgun certificate, issued within a month. The shotguns can stay in the house as long as she likes, used or unused and available, under the usual caveats, to visiting family.

The rifle, which carries much stricter controls, has been transferred on police advice to the grieve, who already had permission to keep a .22. Was life really meant to be this simple?

• This article was first published in the Scotsman, July 31, 2010