From: [C c s m] at [clari.net] (CSM / Alexander MacLeod)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.british_isles.uk,clari.news.issues.guns,clari.world.europe,clari.world.europe.british_isles,clari.news.issues,clari.news.issues.misc
Subject: A Shot in the Dark? Antigun Lobby in Britain Aims for Ban on
Organization: Copyright 1996 by Christian Science Monitor
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 16:00:35 PDT
                                         
   LONDON -- Britain's million-strong gun lobby is fighting a  
rear-guard battle to retain the right to own and use handguns, but 
senior political sources say the government appears likely to order a 
nationwide ban before the end of the year. 
   Fueled by the massacre in March of 16 children and their teacher in  
Dunblane, Scotland, by a lone gunman, public opinion is running 
strongly in favor of such a ban. 
   Paradoxically, a finding by the influential House of Commons Home  
Affairs Committee has boosted the antigun lobby. 
   The committee's Conservative majority voted against a handgun ban,  
but their decision has whipped up a storm of protest. David Mellor, a 
Conservative member of Parliament and a former Cabinet minister, 
attacked the MPs for ``caving in to the (pro) gun lobby'' and doing 
the ruling Conservative Party ``incalculable harm.'' He says voting 
against a ban gives the opposition Labour Party an opportunity to 
``pose as the party of law and order.'' 
   With 72 percent of Britons favoring a ban on handguns, ruling  
Conservatives edge closer to such a move. 
   In Britain there is no constitutional right to bear arms. There is  
even a strong British tradition of police carrying guns as rarely as 
possible. 
   Although the number of firearms enthusiasts is estimated at above 1  
million, police records show that there were only 409,000 legally held 
firearms at the end of 1995. Many marksmen use weapons owned by 
shooting clubs. 
   Of the legally held firearms, roughly half are classified as  
handguns - either pistols or rapid-firing rifles. Both of these types 
of weapons would be included in a handgun ban. 
   Senior government sources say that despite organized resistance  
from the gun lobby, Home Secretary Michael Howard, who cultivates a 
high-profile law-and-order image, is likely to ignore the Home 
Committee's view and insist on strict weapons controls. The sources 
say Mr. Howard will wait until autumn when he receives an official 
report on the Dunblane massacre. The report is widely expected to 
recommend a ban on handguns. 
   But there are signs that firearms enthusiasts will fight hard to  
keep the right to own and use weapons. The British Shooting Sports 
Council is urging marksmen to contribute 25 ($37.50) each to a 
``fighting fund,'' to be used for publicity purposes and to pay for 
lawyers representing their interests at the Dunblane inquiry. 
   Parents of the children murdered at Dunblane have voiced dismay at  
the Home Committee's majority view that a ban would be 
``impracticable.'' 
   They have organized a petition in support of a handgun ban, which  
750,000 people had signed by the end of July. Called the ``Snowdrop 
Petition,'' after the flowers displayed at the Dunblane children's 
burial, it is still circulating. 
   Ann Pearston, who helped to organize the Snowdrop Petition, says  
prohibiting handguns would be ``a radical change'' but insists it is 
``the only way to prevent Dunblane-type massacres happening in the 
future.'' 
   A recent survey for the London Sunday Times by the National Opinion  
Poll concluded that 72 percent of Britons favor a handgun ban. 
   Alun Michael, Labour's home affairs ``shadow'' spokesman, has  
accused the Home Committee's Conservative majority of ``listening too 
hard'' to the views of pro-gun lobbyists who appeared before it. 
   Representatives of the British Shooting Sports Council, which  
represents 900,000 marksmen, and other pro-gun groups, told the 
Committee that a stricter form of gun licensing, and not a ban, was 
the way forward. This was the view adopted by the committee's 
majority. 
   John Greenway, a Conservative member of the Committee, says, ``We  
took the view that it is not legally held firearms that cause the 
problem in this country. It is the way firearms certificates are 
issued and where the law needs to be strengthened.'' Thomas Hamilton, 
the Dunblane killer, was licensed by local police to own and use 
several handguns despite a record of psychological disturbance. 
   Colin Greenwood, editor of Guns Review magazine, estimates that  
Britons spend about $1.5 billion a year on shooting. He doubts however 
whether a ban on handguns would solve the problem, noting, ``For every 
gun in legal ownership in Britain, there may be two held unlawfully.'' 
   Former Cabinet minister Mellor says the best response would be to  
prohibit all handguns of more than .22 caliber. 
   ``What I want to see taken out are the Clint Eastwood-type guns  
which are an American accretion on our way of life. If we want to 
import the American way of life, we've got to come to terms with the 
American way of death,'' he says.