st230696

Jenny Shields, "Rightwingers tell Cullen adults should have all guns they want", The Sunday Times, London, 23^rd June 1996

A RIGHT-WING organisation is calling for the immediate repeal of all firearms regulations in a submission to the Cullen inquiry into the Dunblane tragedy. It conceded yesterday that the parents of children killed and injured in the massacre might find its views 'grossly offensive'. In its submission to the inquiry, the Libertarian Alliance argues that any adult should be able to buy as many guns and as much ammunition as they can afford without showing any permit or identification, be allowed to store their weapons at home and carry them freely in public 'for the protection of life, liberty and property'.

Other submissions which have not been heard at the inquiry, but which will be considered by Lord Cullen, include one from the Scottish Shooters' Rights Association which says the calibre and capacity of the guns used by killer Thomas Hamilton were 'irrelevant'.

Cullen's invitation to interested parties to send written submissions to his inquiry has resulted in an avalanche of paperwork. The bulk of the 120 submissions received, which are not read out at the inquiry, are from official bodies, but many come from individuals such as shooting enthusiasts, psychologists, retired police officers and landowners. It was requested that submissions focused on gun control, school security and the vetting of people working with youngsters but, predictably, it is the gun-control issue which dominates the responses.

Interested parties range from deregulationists such as the Libertarian Alliance to the Snowdrop Petition formed by parents in the Stirling area in the aftermath of Dunblane who seek a total ban on the private ownership of guns.

The alliance, formed in 1979 to promote a broad range of 'libertarian, classical-liberal and free-market ideas', warns that Hamilton's slaughter of 16 children and their teacher 'should not be used to justify the extension or tightening up of existing legal controls of firearms'.

Sean Gabb, a founder member of the alliance and editor of its quarterly magazine, Free Life, said yesterday: 'I have children and I have every sympathy for the Dunblane parents who have suffered a great personal disaster. After something as traumatic as this it is natural to cry out for harsh and punitive action, and I daresay the parents might find our stand grossly offensive. But change in legislation needs to be considered with a cool mind, because what you might want in the heat of the moment is not real justice.'

Speaking from his home in Greenwich, London, Gabb, a university law lecturer, added: 'Tougher gun controls would not have prevented Hamilton doing what he did. Burglars, street criminals, bank robbers and psychotics like Hamilton will take no notice. These people will get hold of guns regardless. All gun-control laws do are disarm honest citizens in the face of criminal aggression and predation.'

Gabb maintains that many people in Britain's mainstream gun lobby support such views but are 'too scared to speak up. If they do, they fear the police will come round and remove their guns on some technicality. I don't possess any firearms so I am free to take this position'.

The Police Federation, which represents 126,000 rank and file officers in England and Wales, last week announced it was seeking a total ban on the private ownership of handguns in the wake of Dunblane.

Its Scottish counterpart, in a submission with the Asso-ciation of Chief Police Officers, stops short of calling for a total ban but wants all multiple-shot weapons prohibited, the establishment of a central gun register and legislation to allow easier revocation of licences. In its submission, the Preparatory Schools Rifle Association claims that: 'Learning about the safe handling of firearms at an early age, far from encouraging laxity, teaches appreciation of the potential dangers that they offer.'

The British Shooting Sports Council, writing on behalf of 10 other organisations, said a 'mystique' had grown up around firearms and their private possession which was portrayed as 'unhealthy and outside the limits of acceptability and normality within British society'. It claims that despite a lack of supporting evidence, there was a 'continued linking of legitimately held firearms to the problems of armed crime', and adds that the most important element of the equation was 'the individual and not the firearm itself'.

The Scottish committee of the Shooters' Rights Association said it wanted all suitable persons to maintain the right to obtain and safely keep weapons in their possession. Its submission also observes that 'the calibre and capacity of a firearm is largely irrelevant in circumstances where only one person is armed, as was the case in Dunblane'.

At the end of the fourth week of the inquiry, Cullen started to hear expert witnesses. On Friday, Alistair Paton, one of country's foremost firearms experts, demonstrated the use of a 9mm Browning, similar to the one Hamilton used to kill his victims. Hamilton had modified the weapons to make them more effective.

The inquiry also heard how a 'gut feeling' about Hamilton led George Robertson, the shadow Scottish secretary, to remove his youngest son from one of the Dunblane boys' clubs run by the killer, and of his later despair when he learnt that the Ombudsman had upheld the gunman's complaints against the local council. Cullen also heard from Michael Forsyth, the Scottish secretary, who had been 'bombarded' with letters from Hamilton. Ian Boal, a student who had helped at one of the clubs, described how the killer's growing obsession with firearms grew in the weeks leading up to the murders. Graeme MacGregor, a long-standing associate of Hamilton's, told how nine days before the massacre on March 13, Hamilton had bought two shirts on his credit card boasting: 'The beauty is I will not have to pay for them ever.'

The inquiry is expected to finish in about two weeks.