News and events

Rampage killer was 'appropriately' granted a gun licence

Published 29 October 2010

Professor Peter Squires, professor of criminology and public policy at the University of Brighton, appeared on BBC Breakfast and spoke on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Sussex following the Association of Chief Police Officer's (ACPO) report by Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Whiting into the circumstances surrounding the granting of a gun licence for Derrick Bird, the 'Cumbria Killer'.

Professor Squires said: "The report concluded that the licensing system operating in Cumbria was robust and 'working properly' and, according to the report, existing gun laws would not have prevented the tragedy and Bird's actions could not have been predicted.

"Gun control campaigners have now insisted that, at the very least, there must be changes to the licensing system to close some of the loopholes which worked in Bird's favour.

"Although Bird did have previous criminal convictions, these were not considered of sufficient significance to warrant withholding the gun licence which covered three shotguns and a .22 rifle. Ironically, although Britain and the USA are often sharply contrasted when it comes to gun control policies and permission to own firearms, the very criminal convictions that were deemed insufficient to prevent Bird getting a gun licence in England may well have barred a person from legally owning guns in the USA.

"The weakness with any gun licensing system is that is inevitably retrospective. Permission to own firearms is based upon previous good behaviour whereas no-one can predict future situations in which someone might, in the PM's words, 'flip out'. It is precisely this problem that has led other public safety advocates to return to proposals made in Lord Cullen's report following the Dunblane killings (in 1996); weapons are least safe in people's private residences. Shooters wishing to keep their weapons at home should not also store their ammunition there."

Professor Squires added: "We have now had three gun rampages (and 44 innocent victims), each incident involved legal gun owners using weapons that public authorities had licensed them to carry. Surely that is enough. My chief worry is that the government will be persuaded to do little more than tighten the licensing process and that, in a few years time, following more murders, we will all be back asking the same questions yet again.

"Representatives of the gun lobby always say they will do anything they can to avoid such incidents, but they always oppose every suggested reform."