Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997

The Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 was the first significant piece of legislation introduced by the new Labour government of Tony Blair.

The act was created in response to the Snowdrop Petition following the Dunblane Massacre. The previous Conservative government had followed the recommendations of the Cullen Report on the massacre and introduced the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 that banned "high calibre" handguns, greater than .22 calibre. But this new (No. 2) act banned the private ownership of all cartridge ammunition handguns, regardless of calibre.

The only handguns to escape the ban were:

• Antique and Muzzle-loading black powder guns
• Guns of historic interest whose ammunition is no longer available ('Section 7.1' weapons)
• Guns of historic interest with current calibres ('Section 7.3' weapons)
• Air pistols
• Guns which fall outside the Home Office definition of "Handguns" (e.g. NSRA "Long Arms", and Long-Barreled Handguns both Small- and Full-bore), where their dimensions - usually barrel length, but also overall firearm length, rules them out of the Home Office definitions, so for legal purposes, they are treated as rifles.

Guns of historic interest are ones typically manufactured before 1919. Since Section 7.3 historic weapons use currently available ammunition, they must be kept at a secure designated site such as the Bisley camp.

The UK government has been heavily criticised for delays in implementing the firearms register under the Act – the register had not been created nine years after the passing of the act[1]. However, the complete ban on private ownership of handguns by licensed, legitimate users has been fully implemented and strictly enforced.

Criticism of the Ban

The pistol ban makes very few exceptions for people to own a cartridge handgun legally. Some Britons regularly shoot pistols abroad in less Draconian countries such as Belgium, France, Switzerland, the USA, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man. This has caused great detriment to British sporting prowess in pistol events, such as at the Commonwealth and Olympic Games as they can only practise for a fraction the amount of time their competitors do. A recent agreement has been made whereby the shortlisted British Olympic pistol team for the 2012 Olympics will be granted short-term Section 5 exceptions and be allowed to import their pistols and store them at a certain, secure site for the duration of the games.

The very principle of the pistol ban has been called into question. In the UK, those who receive Firearm Certificates are in fact highly vetted and undergo some of the most careful, invasive and thorough background checks performed in this country. They are also statistically extremely unlikely to be involved in any form of crime. Additionally, criminals are just that: criminals. If they are bent on committing some criminal act (e.g. murder or robbery) they are unlikely to be deterred by also breaking this law. They are also highly unlikely to obtain a Firearms Certificate, so their possession of any firearm -- be it a rifle, Section 1 shotgun, muzzle-loader, Section 1 airgun or indeed a handgun -- is highly illegal.

Effectiveness of the Act

Since the mid 1990s, so-called 'gun crime' has skyrocketted. Handguns are not difficult for a criminal to obtain for little money. Guns are not difficult to manufacture, convert from other objects or to import illegally, though the quality of these guns is often quite high. However, many thousands of legitimate, vetted sportspeople have been robbed of their chosen sport and property in a way that some have alleged as illegal. The old adage that 'when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns' indeed seems to be proved here. It is therefore very doubtful that the ban actually achieved its stated purpose of 'public safety'. Indeed it must be questioned whether this was in fact the real purpose behind the Act.

Reaction against the ban

In the UK, the bodies representing different shooting disciplines are traditionally quite fractured and introspective. They therefore often do not form a very effective political lobby (as can be seen by the very strict firearms laws in the UK), despite unfounded allegations to the contrary by the Gun Control Network. The failure by the existing bodies to resurrect legal cartridge pistol ownership in the UK has therefore caused the formation of new groups, such as SAGBNI.

See also

• Gun politics in the United Kingdom

External links

• Official text of the statute as amended and in force today within the United Kingdom, from the UK Statute Law Database