Cumbria and Dunblane

The recent events in Cumbria have inevitably led to comparisons with the Dunblane massacre of 1996, when Thomas Hamilton murdered sixteen children and one of their teachers.

After Dunblane the Commons select committee concluded that a ban on handguns would serve no useful purpose, but following pressure from a group of the bereaved mawkishly called 'The Snowdrop Alliance' our new touchy feely Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as one of his first acts on being elected in 1997, called for and got a ban on people owning pistols (the word 'handguns' entered the language at this time).

Derek Bird in Cumbria, Thomas Hamilton in Dunblane and Michael Ryan in Hungerford in 1987 all held their weapons legally. I can accept that there is a case for closer analysis of the people who own guns, although friends tell me that the current regulations are already draconian. In one case Police arrived unannounced at a man's home while he was out, and demanded that his wife tell them where the key to the shotgun cabinet was held. When she told them they withdrew her husband's licence because he had told someone where the key was.

Inevitably there are renewed calls for further restrictions on gun ownership. Even now the British Pistol Shooting Team have to practise abroad and further restrictions would presumably mean arresting foreign teams at the Olympic Games in London. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has wisely resisted calls for changes to the law.

She should continue to do so. We have to accept that we cannot protect ourselves agaisnt any eventuality. Next time it will be carving knives or garden shears. These tragedies, quite simply, happen.