IT is always deeply concerning when a body such as Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) uses emotive language in a report ("Police in warning of massacres over gun laws chaos" The Herald, September 15).
Nobody disputes that the many and varied pieces of legislation relating to gun ownership require to be rationalised into consistent and coherent single legislation which can be easily administered either by the police or a civilian body created for that purpose. It is valid to point out that most of these badly drawn-up pieces of legislation were rushed into law by politicians reacting to media pressure. The axiom rushed law is bad law is shown to be correct.
However, there is no part of society which is more law-abiding and more regulated than the owners of guns, yet it would appear that there is an official policy intent on restricting if not totally abolishing gun ownership. A few years ago a retiring assistant chief constable of a Scottish force was quoted in The Herald as saying that it was in the interests of the police to remove all guns from citizens whether law abiding or not. The HMIC report would appear to be in line with this intention as it holds up the spectre of "massacres" if gun law is not made more restrictive yet it is my understanding that in each of the tragedies mentioned the perpetrator was either using illegal weapons or had displayed clear signs that would have made him unfit to hold a firearms certificate. In the case of Thomas Hamilton I believe it was recommended that his firearms certificate should be revoked but this was overruled by a senior officer.
It is stating the obvious to note that guns do not kill people, people kill people. We do not carry out significant vetting on drivers yet far more people are murdered with vehicles than with legally held guns. A pilot recently killed over 150 passengers yet the checks on him were less than would be applied to a UK gun holder. Gun law has been used as a weapon by politicians to try to prove their law and order credentials. It would surely me much more in all our interests if all concerned concentrated on reducing the extremely large number of illegal guns already in this country.
David Stubley,
22 Templeton Crescent, Prestwick.
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