Gun politics in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has some of the strictest gun legislation in the world. All guns except low-powered airguns and shotguns (which have a less strict control system), can only be obtained if a person holds a "firearms certificate" (gun licence) which can be obtained from the local police, and is renewable every five years.

A separate firearms certificate is required for each individual firearm, except for shotguns where one certificate enables the ownership of as many shotguns as can be safely accommodated.

To obtain a firearms certificate, the police must be convinced that a person has "good reason" to own each gun, and that they can be trusted with it "without danger to the public safety or to the peace". Generally speaking, gun licences are only issued if a person has legitimate sporting or work related reasons for owning a gun. Since 1946, self defence has not been considered a viable reason to own a gun.

Any person who has spent more than three years in prison is automatically banned for life from attaining a gun license.

Any person holding a gun licence must comply with strict conditions, such as conditions on the strorage of firearms in a secure place. And also the recording of any firearm related purchases (such as bullets etc) which must be logged. Failure to comply with any of these conditions can mean the forfeiture of the gun licence, which would mean that any firearms held must be handed in to the police.

The penalty for owning a gun illegally without a certificate is now a mandatory minimum five year prison sentence and possibly an unlimited fine.

Restrictions on gun ownership began in 1903 and a licensing system was introduced in 1920, spurred on partly due to fears of a surge in crime that might have resulted from the large number of guns available following World War I. Gun laws have steadily been tightened ever since.

Automatic weapons have been completely banned from private ownership since 1937. In 1988 semi-automatic rifles (except for .22 rimfire) were completely banned for private ownership following the Hungerford Massacre the previous year.

Since 1997, handguns have been completely banned for private ownership following legislation passed shortly after the Dunblane massacre in 1996 (exceptions to the ban include muzle-loading "Blackpowder" guns, pistols of antique and historical interest, starting pistols and shot pistols for pest control). Even Britain's Olympic shooters fall under this ban; the British pistol shooting team is thus forced to live and train outside the country. Due to shooting being a minority interest sport in the UK, there was relatively little resistance to the legislation, although it had opponents on both sides of the argument (those who felt it was too weak, and those who felt it went too far).


According to Home Office figures released in January of 2003 [1] (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/01/10/ngun10.xml), gun related crime has increased since the 1997 ban.

Figures released by the Home Office in April of 2003 show a marked decrease in overall crime including violent crime; however, the total number of law enforcement personnel in the UK has reached an all-time high. [2] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,930166,00.html)

From June 2003 to June 2004, recorded gun crime in the UK rose by 3% to 10,590 incidents. There was also a 14% rise in violent crime in the April-June period (265,800 incidents compared to 223,600 the previous year). Advocates on both sides of the gun control debate have argued how this is correctly interpreted with no concensus.

Yet Britain remains one of the countries with the lowest homicide rate in the world accounting for 853 homicides in the reporting period 2003/04 according to the UK Home Office for Crime Statistics [3] (http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/page40.asp). At a population of more than 59 Mio. that translates into 1.4 homicides per 100,000 residents.

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