UK MPs urge reform on ‘confused’ gun laws

LONDON – Britain’s gun laws are ‘complex and confused’ and restrictions on the granting of firearms licences should be tighter, MPs have said.

A report by the Home Affairs Committee claims that gun crime could be cut by replacing the web of 34 firearms laws with a single licensing system.’Current gun law is a mess,’ said Labour MP Keith Vaz, the committee chairman. ‘It needs to be simplified, clear and consistent to be properly understood by both those using firearms for legitimate purposes and those in charge of enforcing the law.’The report, commissioned after licensed gun owner Derrick Bird shot dead 12 people in Cumbria in June, recommends that criminals with suspended sentences should lose any firearms licences.Bird, a 52-year-old taxi driver, turned a gun on himself after his shooting spree. Twenty years earlier he had been sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for a year, for stealing decorating materials from his then employer – but he had been able to keep his shotgun certificate.’Mass shootings with licensed weapons, such as the terrible crimes perpetrated by Derrick Bird, also thankfully remain rare,’ said the report.’But the fact that they were carried out by licensed gun owners should not be overlooked in any further consideration of firearms legislation,’ it added.The committee also called for a review of the minimum age limits on the use of firearms. About 1 000 people under the age of 18 have a licence, including children as young as 10, who are not allowed to use the guns unsupervised until they are 15.Latest figures show 138 728 people are licensed by police to hold firearms in England and Wales, while 574 946 people hold shotgun certificates. Separate laws apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland.Campaigners have attacked some of the recommendations, particularly a proposal to raise the current N$530 application fee for a gun licence.’Proposed restrictions on shotgun owners and young shooters, and the broad-brush involvement of GPs, domestic partners and increased licence fees would be hugely disproportionate,’ said Countryside Alliance campaigns director Robert Gray.Guns were responsible for 39 homicides in the UK in 2008/9 and around 2 000 injuries, according to the report.It also recommends that Ofcom and other media regulatory bodies are asked to enforce rules prohibiting overtly sensational media coverage of shootings in a move to avoid copycat killings.Crime prevention minister James Brokenshire said: ‘Public protection is the first duty of any government and our firearms laws are among the toughest in the world. – Nampa-AFP