In a surprising burst of making-stuff-easier-ness, Sussex police are creating a number of iPhone apps for the public, including one to renew your gun licence. Unsurprisingly, the plan has got the anti-gun groups upset. They obviously want the process to be as annoying, bureaucratic and expensive as possible; presumably in the hope that a bit of paperwork every year or so is going to make you throw away your pair of James Purdey handcrafted 1871 12 bore hammer guns with island back rebounding lock action and Jones’ rotary under lever.

Predictable hand-wringing is being led by a group of self-righteous do-gooders called Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (MAMAA). You always get a hit on the BullshitOMeter whenever a campaigning group combines the words “Mothers” and “Against” in their name.

Spokesweasel Lyn Costello said “This isn’t suitable, especially in light of what happened in Cumbria. We’ve got to be extra careful giving gun licenses. We have this attitude that gun murders don’t happen very often so it’s OK to be lax, but it is not OK and we’ve got to do everything in our power to stop it happening again. We can’t put money before life and if you start to do that we are losing our humanity. It is a really stupid idea.“

This is of course a perfectly sensible attitude to take. After all, everyone knows that guns actually contain demons which possess any person unfortunate enough to come into contact with them. Radioactive demons, with large carbon footprints. They also eat sea kittens.

Lyn (may I call you Lyn? Thanks), feel free to stick your hand-wringing nonsense where a shotgun would only fit with a lot of effort. Any attempt to make the dead hand of the State easier to deal with, even in the slightest way, is an unexpected bonus. Two cheers, then, to Sussex plod.