It was for this exact reason that the Conservatives only proposed banning centre fire pistols. But unfortunately once Labour got in they proceeded to ban the whole lot while the advice regarding eligibility for the Olympics in future years fell on deaf or ignorant ears.

The whole thing was electioneering and has in no way contributed to public safety. I can think of many better ways in which they could have spent the millions upon millions of pounds of public money that they wasted on this minority enforced PR excercise.

The sole reason for the Dunblaine tragedy was that David Hamilton was mentally ill. Even after many reports of questionable conduct at his 'boys camps', reports of him threatening people with guns, etc. nothing was done! My opinion is that even if the Police were to have acted proactively and confiscated his guns, he would have probably purchased alternative firearms on the black market or even fixated himself on other weapons such as swords and used them instead in his evil attack.

At the end of the day if a lunatic wants to kill someone with a handgun...they will find a way to do it, regardless of the law. A good example of this is the very sad case of Jill Dando. I even know of a very local case to me where a mentally ill man shot and wounded his family doctor with an ancient WW1 service revolver and crude home made ammunition. He attacked the doctor as the final act of a hate campaign that ran for 10 years as he blamed the doctor for the death of his mother.

Rather than banning guns the government should invest time and effort in tackling the real issue of unsuitable people obtaining guns for illegal acts.

It was even suggested by the shooting lobby that they would welcome far more effective and stringent checks on certificate holders, even to the point of phsychiatric testing to prevent mentally ill people from obtaining a firearms certificate.


Cheers





Clive