Small calibre handguns facing ban

MPs Vote to Ban All Handguns

The Firearms (Amendment) Bill, drawn-up following last year's Dunblane massacre, was backed with a majority of 211.

MPs voted 384 to 173 to reject a Tory amendment which would have blocked the Bill's second reading.

MPs went on to give the Bill a second reading by 384 to 181, a majority of 203.

Although the Bill still has to complete its Commons stages and be dealt with by the House of Lords, ministers are aiming to have the legislation on the Statute Book by the long summer recess in July.

Labour MPs were given a free vote on the issue, which follows the outlawing of all large calibre handguns by the previous Tory Government.

The vote came after the Prime Minister voiced his personal support for an extension of the ban to include smaller calibre weapons as well.

"I think we do owe a moral responsibility to the victims of Dunblane and their families. That is the reason why we have sought to bring forward this legislation," Mr Blair told the Commons.

"I think they are the right measures and I think we all remember in this House the day of Dunblane and what happened there and we want to do all in our power to make sure that that never happens again," he said.

The ban comes after a long campaign launched by the families of those killed by the gunman Thomas Hamilton, who shot dead 16 children and their teacher in the gymnasium at Dunblane Primary School just over a year ago.

Just two days ago MPs approved a compensation package for large calibre handguns, which will be banned from July 1 under the previous legislation.

But the Shadow Home Secretary Michael Howard attacked the provisions of the Bill as a "draconian" infringement of personal liberties and insisted that the 80% ban brought in by the last Government was sufficient.

"The proposals in this Bill are unnecessary, unfair and expensive," he complained.

Straw: Defended legislation

Mr Howard said the ban would kill-off the sport of target shooting. "What is the justification for bringing these proposals forward with such unseemly haste?~ he asked.

A heartfelt plea for MPs to back a total ban on handguns came from the new Labour MP representing Dunblane, Anne McGuire, who recalled the 106 bullets fired by Thomas Hamilton as he mowed down his victims.

In an emotional speech, Mrs McGuire insisted the current restrictions on large calibre weapons was "half-baked" and condemned them for leaving a "lethal loophole".

Small calibre .22 guns, she insisted, could be just as lethal as the larger-calibre weapons.

But her Labour colleague's Frank Cook, however, a persistent critic of the earlier legislation, hit out at the latest Bill.

Accusing senior members of his party of interfering with a so-called "free vote" the last time the issue was debated, he said a whole class of people were being "victimised" by the Bill, which would not work.

Mr Cook, pistol captain of the House of Commons Rifle club, said: "If I thought that enactment of this legislation would make Jack the Lad stay at home instead of going out to do the bank robbery or knock off the local post office I would have signed the Snowdrop petition months ago."

Shooting enthusiasts oppose plan

"But legislation in an area such as this is not a memorial to the victims of evil nor is it a way of venting our anger at the terrible thing that was done. It is a mechanism that limits the freedom of individuals and should be judged according to whether the restrictions on freedoms are justified and effective," he stressed.

The Home Secretary Jack Straw defended the legislation. "I recognise there will be law-abiding shooters who will be inconvenienced or worse as a result, and I regret that," he said.

"But I am in no doubt where the balance should be struck between the right to practise sport and the right to life, particularly the right to life of a child," Mr Straw told the Commons.

He denied suggestions from shooting organisations that a total handgun ban would jeopardise the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002 and any chance of hosting the Olympic Games in the future.