TOUGH new controls on firearms in Britain looked increasingly likely last night as the government distanced itself from a Commons Home Affairs Select Committee report which rejected calls for a total ban on handguns.
The decision was denounced vehemently by bereaved parents from Dunblane, the police federation and politicians from all the parties.
After dismissing claims that the six Tory MPs, who had overruled their five Labour colleagues on the committee by refusing to agree to any kind of ban on handguns, had succumbed to intense lobbying from pro-gun organisations, the Home Office Minister, Mr David Maclean, stressed the report was not government policy. He said he backed the "toughest possible gun control", but insisted the government would only announce its plans once Lord Cullen had produced his report next month into the Dunblane massacre. Today's London Times says a ban appears inevitable.
Mr Maclean said the government would not "shirk" its responsibilities to public safety. The earliest possible parliamentary slot in October had been reserved, he said.
Five months after Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 children and their teacher at Dunblane primary school in Scotland, the Tory-dominated committee argued that a total ban was a "panic measure", would cost "millions" to enforce and would effectively end pistol-shooting as a sport.
Sir Ivan Lawrence, the Tory chairman of the committee, defended the report, arguing that the Dunblane parents' judgment was clouded by their emotions and that the other critics were simply "talking out the back of their heads".
However, the five Labour MPs accused Sir Ivan of ignoring public opinion.