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The United Kingdom has some of the strictest gun legislation in the world. All Rifled Firearms except low-powered Airgun s can only be obtained on licence on a "firearms certificate", while Smoothbore firearms such as Shotguns are subject to a less rigorous certification and registration process, on a "shotgun certificate". In similarity with Australia , gun politics in the United Kingdom places its main considerations in how best to ensure public safety and how crimes involving firearms can most effectively be prevented, with little consensus between pro-gun control and pro-shooting advocates. There is no organised " Right To Keep And Bear Arms " lobby in the United Kingdom, and such positions are generally frowned upon. Sharp rises in gun crime from the late 1990s and illicit importation of firearms has proved to be a problem, while two high-profile Massacres involving licenced firearms has brought the sport of Target Shooting into disrepute. LICENSING AND LEGISLATION A firearms certificate differs from a shotgun certificate in that justification must be provided to the police for each firearm individually, and these firearms are listed, by type, calibre, and serial number, individually on the certificate; whereas a shotgun licence enables the ownership of as many shotguns as can be safely accommodated. To gain permission for a new firearm, a "variation" must be sought, for which a fee is payable unless the variation is made at the time of renewal, or unless it constitutes a one-for-one replacement of an existing firearm which is to be disposed of. The certificate also sets out, by calibre, the maximum quantities of ammunition which may be bought/possessed at any one time, and is used to record the purchasing of ammunition (except, optionally, where ammunition is both bought, and used immediately, on a range). 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 (and a weapon - you can have a licence without a gun) must comply with strict conditions, such as conditions on the storage of firearms in a secure place; storage arrangements are checked by the police before the granting of permission to store weapons, and on every renewal of the licence. A local police force may impose additional conditions on ownership, over and above those set out by law. 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 . HISTORY OF GUN CONTROL IN THE UNITED KINGDOM As English subjects, Protestants had a conditional right to possess arms according to the ''English Declaration Of Rights'' Of 1689 . :"That the subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions, and as allowed by Law." ''House of Commons Journal 29'' {Link without Title} " The rights of English subjects, and, after 1707, British subjects, to possess arms was recognized under English Common Law. Sir William Blackstone's ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'', were highly influential and were used as a reference and text book for English Common Law. In his Commentaries, Blackstone described the right to arms.
Formerly, this same British common law applied to the UK and Australia, as well as until 1789 to the Colonies in North America that became the United States. The rights of citizens in the Thirteen Colonies to keep and bear arms that then existed under British common law was formalized in 1789 in the Second Amendment To The United States Constitution . In contrast, the UK, like Australia, has a doctrine of Parliamentary Supremacy , rather than the constitutionally-guaranteed common law rights of "the People" as established in the United States. Hence, in the UK (and Australia), English Common Law rights to arms may be extinguished by conflicting statute law. With the changing of statute law, the historic English Common Law rights to arms, that still exist in the United States, are now just history in the UK and Australia. Modern restrictions on gun ownership began in 1903 and a licensing system gun law 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 and in part due to fears of working class unreast in this period. Automatic Weapon s have been almost completely banned from private ownership since 1937 , now being only available to certain special collectors, museums and prop companies. As Of 1997 , handguns have been almost completely banned for private ownership following legislation passed shortly after the Dunblane Massacre in 1996. Exceptions to the ban include muzzle-loading "blackpowder" guns, pistols produced before 1917, pistols of historical interest (such as pistols used in notable crimes, rare prototypes, unusual serial numbers and so on), starting pistols, pistols that are of paticular aesthetic interest (such as engraved or jewelled guns) and shot pistols for pest control. This is despite the fact that the official enquiry into the subject, the Cullen Report , did not recommend such action. Even Britain's Olympic shooters fall under this ban; as a result of this law, the British pistol shooting team must live and train outside the country. As a result of shooting being a minority interest sport in the UK, there was little public 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 . MODERN CHANGES IN GUN CONTROL Changes in public attitudes in the 1970s and 1980s changed the basis on which firearms were perceived and understood in British society. Increasingly graphic portrayals of firearms involved in gratuitous acts of violence in the Mass-media gave rise to concern of the emergence of an aggressive " Gun Culture ". A steady rise in violent gun crime in general also became an issue of concern. This period saw a change of attitude within the government away from legislating to preclude a violent civil uprising to legislating to ensure public safety and prevent crime, with the most radical changes being introduced in the aftermath of a specific incident. Hungerford incident See Also: Hungerford massacre In 1987 , 27 year old Michael Ryan , armed with a Chinese-made semi-automatic AK-47 , a Beretta Handgun and an Israel i-made Fragmentation Grenade , dressed up in combat fatigues and proceeeded around the town of Hungerford killing or wounding everyone he met, in what became the known as the Hungerford Massacre . The press suggested he had been inspired by the film Rambo , which later turned out to be false (he had never seen the film), but he did possess a number of similarly violent films. In the aftermath, the Conservative government seized the opportunity to pass the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988, the principles of which had been decided beforehand, which elevated pump-action and self-loading rifles into the Prohibited category and introducted new restrictions on shotguns, however rifles in .22 Rimfire and semi-automatic Pistol s were spared. Dunblane massacre See Also: Dunblane massacre Eight years after the Hungerford Massacre, the Dunblane Massacre was the second time in less than a decade that unarmed civilians had been killed in Britain by a legally-licensed gun owner. On March 13 1996 Thomas Hamilton , aged 43, a disgruntled former scout leader (having been ousted by The Scout Association five years previously), shot dead sixteen young children and their teacher, Gwenne Mayor , in Dunblane Primary school's gymnasium with his legally-licensed weapons and ammunition. He then shot himself. There is a memorial to the seventeen victims in the local cemetery and a Cenotaph in the cathedral. The funds raised in the aftermath of the tragedy have been used to build a new community centre for the town. Following the incident, the government passed legislation effectively banning handgun ownership in the UK. CONTROVERSY According to Home Office figures released in January 2003 , gun related crime has increased since the 1997 ban. In the light of such figures, and because of continued Home Office lack of interest in any legal changes other than further restrictions, many sporting shooters have concluded that gun control advocates (including the Labour Party ) have no genuine interest in public safety at all, and only use it as a convenient excuse to disguise simple "bigotry" (to quote "Target Sports" magazine editorial, June 2005) . Other factors have reinforced this belief, including, for example, the indiscriminate use of the phrase " Gun Culture " to include both law-abiding target shooters and people who own guns illegally for criminal purposes . Figures released by the Home Office in April 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. 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 consensus. COMPARISON WITH OTHER COUNTRIES 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 Home Office's Crime Statistics . At a population of more than 60 million that translates into less than 1.3 homicides per 100,000 residents in the UK. By comparison, in 2000, police in the United States reported 5.5 homicides for every 100,000 population. Both New York City and London have over 7 million residents with New York suffering 952 homicides in 2000 to London's 189 in 2003. THE 2012 OLYMPICS Following the awarding of the 2012 Olympic Games to London, the government announced that special dispensation would be granted to allow the various shooting events to go ahead, as had been previously for the 2002 Commonwealth Games . However, athletes at these games complained of the terrible conditions they were subjected to. Their handguns were transported by armoured car and police convoy, they were unable to train and were forced to compete under armed guard. The government has not yet elaborated on the exact provisions to be made for the Olympic Games but something similar, if not identical, can be expected. When it was announced that Britain would host the 2012 Olympic Games the media did give some attention and sympathy to the British shooting team and there was talk of handguns being re-legalized, however, the government has not spoken of this and it is highly unlikely. RELEVANT ACTS OF PARLIAMENT The following information is released under Crown Copyright by the Office Of Public Sector Information .
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