KILLINGS REOPEN FIREARMS DEBATE

The New Year's Day gun killings in Peterlee have reopened the debate about whether Britain's already very strict firearms laws should be tightened further.

Owners of shotguns and rifles must undergo background checks which are supposed to ensure they pose no threat to public safety.

People applying for permission to keep a gun must declare any criminal records and relevant medical conditions, including any previous treatment for depression or mental illness.

Police forces have powers to revoke firearms licences if officers receive information about new convictions or changes in the certificate-holder's mental health.

But a series of horrifying mass shootings over the years - in particular in Hungerford in August 1987, Dunblane in March 1996 and Cumbria in June 2010 - have raised questions about whether enough is done to stop guns legally ending up in the hands of dangerously unstable people.

Taxi driver Michael Atherton - who shot dead his partner and two other women before killing himself in Peterlee, County Durham, on Sunday - had licences for three shotguns and three "Section One" firearms such as rifles.

Both types of certification are reviewed every five years, although fewer than 1% of applications to renew a shotgun licence were rejected in 2009-10.

Home Office figures for England and Wales show there were 141,775 certificates on issue for Section One firearms and 580,653 for shotguns at the end of March 2010.

Police revoked 302 firearms licences and 1,076 shotgun licences in 2009-10.

In December 2010, the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee described legislation in England and Wales as a "complex and confused" mess and called for tighter restrictions on gun licences.

The MPs called for criminals who receive suspended jail terms - like taxi driver Derrick Bird, who killed 12 people in the 2010 Cumbria shooting spree - to be stripped of firearms licences.

Shooting organisations stress that the UK's gun laws are already extremely tough and have warned against a "knee-jerk" reaction to the latest tragedy.


© PA 2012