THE BRITISH government has told an official inquiry into the slaughter in March of 16 Scottish children by a gunman that it would be impracticable to impose a total ban on personal firearms.
In a report to the inquiry, which opened yesterday under senior judge Lord Cullen, the government detailed 35 options for changes in the law but appeared to rule out a complete gun ban.
"A complete prohibition of firearms would be unprecedented in a modern democratic country, and could not be expected to eliminate their use in criminal offences," the report said.
The government also apparently rejected psychological testing before firearms licences were issued, saying there was no clear view as to what was relevant and that in any case there were "severe practical difficulties".
Anti gun campaigners say the government erred by not imposing a ban immediately after Thomas Hamilton burst into Dunblane primary school, killing the five and six year olds and their teacher in a hail of gunfire before shooting himself dead.
The helplessness of Hamilton's victims led to calls for tougher gun controls in Britain, widely considered to be already among the strictest in the world.
Lord Cullen will only start hearing evidence at the end of the month and the results of the inquiry are expected to be given to parliament later this year, possibly in September.
Scottish minister Mr David Maclean dismissed as "absurd" suggestions the inquiry would take too long and the government should have acted sooner.
"There is no clear way ahead on this," he told BBC radio. "We would be criticised from all sides for trying to put an emergency Bill through parliament . . . There is no consensus whatsoever on what the government should do."
The Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard, said any changes to gun controls should await the outcome of the inquiry but added that the government would respond urgently if the judge decided to make interim recommendations.
Lord Cullen said he had already identified three areas - gun control, school security and the supervision of adults working with children - where he expected to make recommendations.
British firearms laws were toughened in 1988, a year after Michael Ryan, a 27 year old gun fanatic, rampaged through the streets of the English village of Hungerford, killing 16 people and wounding It before shooting himself.
The Dunblane inquiry at Stirling University was given added poignancy by last Sunday's bloody rampage in Tasmania, when a lone gunman killed 35, people.