From: [C reuters] at [clari.net] (Reuters)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.british_isles.uk,clari.news.issues.guns,clari.world.europe.british_isles,clari.news.issues.misc
Subject: Britons hand in 23,000 guns in Dunblane amnesty
Organization: Copyright 1996 by Reuters
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 10:00:22 PDT
Expires: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 10:00:22 PDT
                                         
         LONDON (Reuter) - Nearly 23,000 guns were handed in to  
British police during a month-long amnesty prompted by the 
Dunblane school massacre, Home Secretary Michael Howard said 
Tuesday. 
         Howard, the interior minister, said he was delighted by the  
response to the June amnesty, which netted 22,939 guns, 695,197 
rounds of ammunition and 2,862 other weapons. 
         ``Every gun taken out of circulation reduces the risk of  
lives being lost,'' Howard said. ``This will make it much harder 
for criminals to steal guns and use them in crimes against the 
community.'' 
         Howard called the amnesty in the wake of the murder in March  
of 16 children and their teacher at Dunblane primary school in 
Scotland by lone gunman Thomas Hamilton, who then shot himself. 
         Members of the public were encouraged to hand in illegally  
-- and legally -- held guns to the police without fear of 
prosecution provided they had not been used in a crime. 
         It was Britain's fourth firearms amnesty.  
         The previous one in 1988 -- the year after Michael Ryan shot  
dead 16 people in Hungerford, west of London -- netted 48,000 
weapons. Home Office officials said that figure was high because 
there had been no amnesty in the preceding 20 years.