THE British government is proposing the "toughest gun control laws in the world" in its response to Lord Cullen's report into the massacre at Dunblane in which Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and their teacher.
In his address to the House of Commons, the Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard, said that while the government agreed with the recommendations of the sullen report he would be setting out legislation to "outlaw completely" the ownership of high calibre handguns which would facilitate the destruction of at least 160,000 handguns, some 80 per cent of the currently legally held handguns in Britain.
The Deputy Chief Constable of Central Scotland Police, Mr Douglas McMurdo, who authorised the gun licence application for Hamilton and was criticised directly in the Cullen report, resigned yesterday as the report was published.
Mr Howard has gone further than the recommendations of the Cullen report by announcing the government's intention to introduce legislation banning the home ownership of all handguns above .22 calibre - which includes semi automatic and large calibre pistols similar to those used by Hamilton when he claimed the lives of 16 children and their teacher in Dunblane.
Mr Howard stressed that, while Lord Cullen suggested that it would be safe to store single shot handguns in the home, the government believed they should be subject to the same controls as high calibre pistols and revolvers. Consequently, the proposal is that handguns above the .22 calibre will be stored in private clubs.
The only exception to the ban is the .22 calibre pistol itself similar to those used in the Olympic Games; they must also be kept under strict security at gun clubs.
Mr Howard also announced that there will be a requirement for all handgun applicants to obtain a certificate to fire a handgun in a gun club and an additional ban on the sale of guns by postal application to gun magazines. The government, he said, would also seek to introduce a new offence relating to the failure of an individual to notify the police when a firearm is sold, transferred, deactivated or destroyed.
Mr Howard said that in the light of Lord Cullen's recommendations, the government would propose a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for the illegal possession of high calibre handguns and the illegal possession of .22 rimfire handguns. Mr Howard also proposed a ban on the possession of expanding ammunition, like that used by Hamilton at Dunblane, which he said was "designed to cause maximum injury". The exception to this proposal, he said, would be those who are engaged in deer shooting.
Announcing the government's sweeping measures, the Home Secretary said that he disagreed with Lord Cullen's recommendation that multi shot handguns should be disabled when kept at home, on the grounds that it "would not be practical".
The Opposition leaders, Mr Tony Blair and Mr Paddy Ashdown, met the Home Secretary, Mr Howard, earlier in the day to consider the recommendations made in the Cullen report ahead of its publication in the Commons. At that meeting Mr Howard is believed to have pressed for a degree of consensus on the report, but the Labour Party has performed something of a U turn on the issue and called for an outright ban on the ownership of handguns.
The Shadow Scottish Secretary, Mr George Robertson, who lives in Dunblane, said "the buck stops here and as the law makers of the land we must act decisively and urgently." He urged the government to "take the final step" and legislate for an outright ban on gun ownership.
A number of Tory MPs were calling last night for a free vote on gun control, pointing out the need to vote without interference from the whip's office. While the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party said they would "support and facilitate" the government in its efforts to curb the possession of handguns, both parties asked if it was necessary "to go further" and ban handguns completely.
In Dunblane, the parents of the 16 children who were killed by Thomas Hamilton said the seeds of the tragedy had been sown by a "gun culture". The government's compromise on the issue of gun ownership, they said, was "not acceptable".