The home secretary today said the Government would "consider all the options" on gun laws, as the prime minister cautioned against a "knee-jerk reaction".
The home secretary said the Government would “consider all the options” on gun laws in an emergency statement before the Commons this afternoon, as the prime minister cautioned against a “knee-jerk reaction” on gun ownership laws following the murder of 12 people in Cumbria yesterday. The comments came as police confirmed the weapons used by Derrick Bird were legally held firearms – he had held a licence for 15 years.
Though there was agreement from Alan Johnson, the shadow home secretary, that there should be no rush to change firearms laws but they should be reviewed, there were growing calls today for tighter gun control laws in Britain. Peter Squires, professor of criminology at the University of Brighton, wrote in today’s Guardian that “if gun owners weren’t able to store ammunition at home mass shootings would be less likely”.
Professor Squires explained:
“If firearm owners were not permitted to store guns and ammunition at home, the incident could not have happened… the risks are out there – if gun owners are to keep their weapons at home, as they want to, then they should not be allowed to keep ammunition at home as well.
“We can’t look into a crystal ball to say who may or may not be about to go off the rails/encounter depression/be consumed by murderous rage – but we ought not let them have the means to perpetrate a mass shooting outrage if and when they do. Keeping guns separate from ammunition would make such incidents preventable – and our communities safer places.“
International evidence shows that there is a correlation between the percentage of households with firearms and the rate of intentional firearms deaths per 100,000 of population, as the graph below illustrates:
There have, however, been some calls for gun licensing laws not to be tightened, but repealed – citing Israel and the United States as examples Britain should follow. Dr Sean Gabb, director of the Libertarian Alliance, said:
“The Libertarian Alliance notes that these shootings would have been extremely difficult in a country where the people were allowed to arm themselves. In the United States, at least one campus shooting was brought to a premature end by armed civilians. The same is true in Israel, where many members of the public go about armed…
“All the Firearms Acts from 1920 onwards should be repealed. The largely ineffective laws of 1870 and 1902 should also be repealed. It should once again be possible for adults to walk into a gun shop and, without showing any permit or proof of identity, buy as many guns and as much ammunition as they can afford.”
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34 Responses to “Calls for tighter gun control in wake of tragedy”
Calls for tighter gun control in wake of tragedy « The best Labour blogs
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Anon E Mouse
mike – You are seriously comparing the Countryside Alliance to the NRA?
Do you know anything about either organisation?
No more new laws thank you. With over 3000 laws passed by that last useless government it’s time for less laws BUT enforce the ones that exist otherwise we’ll end up with ID Cards and the like.
Roll on Cleggs great repeal of stupid Labour laws I say…
mike
what the laws to let rapists go un named
DNA of rapists scrapped
CCTV in our town centres
Get real The Tories didnt even win the elction
so no mandate – ha ha Get over it – You didnt win
The Countryside Alliance is the Tory party
Ps why dont we have a vote on Fox hunting why because you and your countryside millionaire friends would lose
mike
YES
New Law
to stop Criminals owning Guns
Overwhelming Public Support
Benjamin
Sean Gabb is almost hilarious in his daft attachment to his ideology over everything. I like the notion that nutters with guns can be stopped by non-nutters with guns. Sometimes, maybe. But it is far better to have low gun ownership in the first place, as the evidence suggests.