New firearms advisor welcomed to the NGO team

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The NGO are delighted that Livia Brynin will now be helping Alan Barrell as an additional firearms advisor for NGO members.

Livia has been a Regional Chairman for Sussex for over two years, but has been heavily involved in game shooting all of her life. “My father has always been active member of DIY shoots. I spent my formative years growing up with the cycles of rearing, feeding, conservation and shooting. I also enjoy working my dogs, strong advocate for conservation, as it's a key part to promotion to the industry.”

Livia has also been involved in running two shoots of two estates offering partridge and pheasant, with a clay pigeon shooting business alongside. She even trained as a BASC shotgun coach over 20 years ago and although that has now lapsed, she and her partner still do a lot of simulated shoots and bringing on of novice shooters. “I’m a member of the Guild of Shooting Instructors, and I enjoy introducing children and ladies into the sport.”

Livia also has a law degree and has been a magistrate for ten years and sits in both the magistrates and crown courts, and is also a presiding justice. “I sit on warrants, so I am very used to the inner dealings of the Crown Prosecution Service.”

She sees the role as being largely about creating good working relationships with the various police firearms departments, so the NGO firearms team have go-to people within the regional forces when a query arises, so we can offer the best service to members. It also involves offering training to the police – for example teaching call centres how they should be dealing with calls which relate to firearms or shotgun usage.

Livia has so far had meetings with numerous police forces and resurrected FLAG, the Kent Firearms Licensing and Guidance Committee. “It’s about making sure we are up to date with everything that the police are doing, and being transparent; offering them help where we can. Knowing what their wait times are is quite important in different areas, so if someone has put in for a variation or a new licence or has changed address, it’s about knowing how long that’s going to take in that specific area, and having those channels so we know who to ask.”