Ammunition held separately, properly

For a firearm certificate the security condition covers the firearms and the ammunition. It is a point that catches people out, because for a shot gun certificate it covers the guns only, and the two get conflated.

Where separate ammunition storage is required, it needs to be exactly that: a separate lockable compartment with its own lock, not a shelf inside the same door. This cupboard has one built into the base, below the rack, with its own lock and its own steel.

The main compartment is lined in baize, which is not decoration. Guns stand against a soft surface rather than a hard one, and the barrel rack is set out so that no two guns touch. On a pair of good guns the finish is the thing you cannot replace, and the cost of getting the rack spacing right is nothing next to it.

The doors are solid timber rather than glazed, which suits a room where discretion matters more than display. Nothing about the outside of this cupboard announces what is inside it, and that is deliberate. Concealment has no standing in itself, but it does defeat the opportunist who never finds it.

Behind the timber the construction is the same as every cabinet we make: steel over 2mm throughout the lined carcass, folded steel doors with anti-cut pins on the hinge side, five-lever mortice locks to BS 3621, and fixings anchored into masonry rather than into plasterboard.

The specification was agreed with the client firearms enquiry officer in writing before manufacture began, and the signed specification sheet was handed over on installation.