House of Commons Home Affairs Committee Firearms Control Third Report of Session 2010–2011 Volume I HC 447-I House of Commons Home Affairs Committee Firearms Control Third Report of Session 2010–2011 Volume I Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Additional written evidence is contained in Volume II, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/homeaffcom Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 14 December 2010 HC 447-I Published on 20 December 2010 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £20.00 The Home Affairs Committee The Home Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Home Office and its associated public bodies. Current membership Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP (Labour, Leicester East) (Chair) Nicola Blackwood MP (Conservative, Oxford West and Abington) Mr Aidan Burley MP (Conservative, Cannock Chase) James Clappison MP (Conservative, Hertsmere) Lorraine Fullbrook MP (Conservative, South Ribble) Dr Julian Huppert MP (Liberal Democrat, Cambridge) Steve McCabe MP (Labour, Birmingham Selly Oak) Rt Hon Alun Michael MP (Labour & Co-operative, Cardiff South and Penarth) Bridget Phillipson MP (Labour, Houghton and Sunderland South) Mark Reckless MP (Conservative, Rochester and Strood) Mr David Winnick MP (Labour, Walsall North) The following member was also a member of the committee during the parliament. Mary Macleod MP (Conservative, Brentford and Isleworth) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/homeaffairscom. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Elizabeth Flood (Clerk), Joanna Dodd (Second Clerk), Sarah Petit (Committee Specialist), Eleanor Scarnell (Inquiry Manager), Darren Hackett (Senior Committee Assistant), Sheryl Dinsdale (Committee Assistant), Victoria Butt (Committee Assistant) and Alex Paterson (Select Committee Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Home Affairs Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 3276; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] Firearms Control 1 Contents Report Page Key Facts 3 1 Introduction 5 Background to our inquiry 5 Conduct of the inquiry 5 2 Rationale for firearms control 7 Criminal use of firearms 7 The use of legal firearms in crime 10 Legitimate firearms users 13 The impact of legislation to control the supply of firearms on levels of gun crime 15 Other factors influencing levels of gun crime 20 3 Licensed firearms 23 Licensing and purchasing section 1 firearms and shotguns 23 The role of the licensing function in minimising risk 24 Proposals for greater involvement of medical practitioners in the licensing process 27 Proposals to tighten the “prohibited persons” restrictions 31 The licence renewal and revocation process 34 Proposals for a single system to cover shotguns and section 1 firearms 35 Licensing guidance and implementation 36 Concern about the impact of spending cuts on the licensing function 37 Additional concerns about access to firearms 38 Storage 38 The age at which supervised and unsupervised use of firearms should be permitted 41 Miniature rifle ranges 44 4 Tackling misuse of other firearms 45 The illegal gun market 45 Measures to tackle deactivated firearms 46 Measures to tackle blank firing imitation firearms 48 Stronger enforcement against conversion, supply and importation of illegal firearms 49 Measures to combat misuse of low-powered air weapons 51 Conclusions and recommendations 56 Formal Minutes 62 Witnesses 63 2 Firearms Control List of printed written evidence 64 List of additional written evidence 64 List of unprinted evidence 65 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 65 Firearms Control 3 Key Facts • Firearms were used in 14,250 offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2008/09, including 6,042 cases involving air weapons and 8,208 cases involving other firearms. • 45% of police recorded offences involving firearms other than air weapons related to violence against the person, 44% to robbery and 6% to criminal damage. • 77% of police recorded offences involving air weapons related to criminal damage and 19% to violence against the person. • Just over a third of fatal or serious injuries were caused by handguns, just under a third by rifles or “other” firearms, 18% by shotguns and 17% by air weapons. • There were 39 firearms homicides in 2008/09, which represented 6% of all homicides during the year: 4 of these deaths involved a weapon that was held on a certificate; 17 involved a weapon that was not held on a certificate; the status of the weapons in the remaining 18 deaths was unknown. • The most recent figures show 138,728 firearm certificates on issue in England and Wales, covering 435,383 firearms; and 26,072 firearm certificates on issue in Scotland, covering 70,856 firearms. • The most recent figures show 574,946 shotgun certificates on issue in England and Wales, covering 1,366,082 shotguns; and 50,308 shotgun certificates on issue in Scotland, covering 137,768 shotguns. • 24 out of 9,668 firearms licence application renewals, and 93 out of 25,408 shotgun licence application renewals, were refused in 2008/09. • Some 260 firearm certificates and 1,009 shotgun certificates were revoked during 2008/09. • There are 34 pieces of legislation governing the control of firearms. Firearms Control 5 1 Introduction Background to our inquiry 1. The terrible murder of 12 men and women, and injury of 11 others, by Derrick Bird with legally-held firearms on 2 June 2010 triggered a fierce debate about how to prevent a repeat of such events. Should a man who, it subsequently emerged, had criminal convictions, have been allowed to own lethal firearms? Was there anything in his behaviour that could have alerted the authorities to his potential for violence? The following month, the dangers of firearms were again brought to the forefront of public attention by the shootings perpetrated by Raoul Moat, albeit with weapons obtained illegally. 2. The Chief Constable of Cumbria Constabulary requested the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to investigate whether or not his force should have granted Derrick Bird certificates allowing him access to firearms. Given the number of wider issues posed by these shootings, and the fact that our predecessors had not inquired into this subject for over ten years, we decided that the efficacy of current measures to control the supply of firearms also merited broader consideration by a select committee. 3. In July 2010 we therefore announced our intention: • To investigate the extent to which legally-held guns are used in criminal activity and the relationship between gun control and gun crime, including the impact of the Firearms (Amendment) Acts 1997; • To examine whether or not the current laws governing firearms licensing are fit for purpose, including progress on implementing the Committee’s recommendations set out in its Second Report of the 1999–2000 session; • To examine proposals to improve information-sharing between medics and the police in respect of gun licensing; • To examine information-sharing between police and prisons in assessing the risk of offenders who may have access to firearms; and • To consider the danger presented by, and legislation regulating, air weapons. Conduct of the inquiry 4. We took oral evidence on five occasions between September and November 2010 from the British Shooting Sports Council, the British Association of Shooting and Conservation, the National Rifle Association, Professor Peter Squires, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the Countryside Alliance, the Gun Trade Association, a number of witnesses from Cumbria, the Gun Control Network, the ACPO leads for firearms licensing and for criminal use of firearms, the National Ballistics Intelligence Service, the British Medical Association, the Home Office and the Attorney-General of the District of Columbia. We also visited the National Shooting Centre at Bisley, where we met a wide range of people involved in Olympic and Paralympic sports and a variety of other organisations concerned with the use of firearms. 6 Firearms Control 5. We received 41 written submissions which we publish with this report or on our website. In addition 929 individuals who participate in shooting, or whose livelihoods depend upon it, wrote to us. As a number asked for their submissions to be kept anonymous for security reasons, and because their views were reflected in the published submissions from the shooting membership organisations, we have decided not to publish the vast majority of them. However, it was hugely valuable for us to hear from those with first-hand experience of the existing regulatory system. We are grateful to all who contributed to our inquiry. Firearms Control 7 2 Rationale for firearms control Criminal use of firearms 6. The figures for “firearms offences” published annually by the Home Office include offences in which a firearm, held either legally or illegally, has been fired, used as a