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BRITAIN will face gun massacres unless the chaotic firearms licensing regime is overhauled, a police watchdog warned today.
The public are at risk because of a litany of failures and inconsistencies in the way prospective and existing gun owners are vetted and monitored, inspectors found.
In a highly critical report, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary said lessons have not been learned in the wake of tragedies such as the killing of 12 people by taxi driver Derrick Bird in Cumbria in 2010.
They highlighted “unsatisfactory” arrangements for assessing an individual’s medical suitability to have a firearms licence, saying they are less rigorous than the checks conducted on prospective bus drivers.
Investigators also found gun owners were illegally allowed to keep using their weapons because of application backlogs, while nearly half of all 43 forces in England and Wales fail to contact referees listed by new applicants.
Inspector of Constabulary Stephen Otter, who led the inspection, said: “Licensing is not an area which police forces can afford to get wrong. Public safety relies on it.”
