Gun crime was in the news this weekend, with the Prime Mininster announcing his intent to decrease the age at which a mandatory sentence can be imposed, and to criminalise gang membership. These might seem like odd moves at a time when the prison system is bursting at the seams, but despite his denials, it's hard to believe that the fatal shooting of four people in London in the last week and three in Manchester played no part in the timing of this announcement.
This 'tough new law' response feels very familiar. What seems less common is an ability to follow through on previous legislative commitments in this area. There is still no UK National Firearms Register, for instance, eleven years after the Dunblane massacre and almost ten years after the 'tough new legislation' was enacted. This article from a year ago gives a good summary.
There are about 150,000 Firearms Certificates (FACs) in the UK; the form has 26 fields to complete. They are issued by each police force, of which there are 43 in England and Wales, one in Northern Ireland, and eight in Scotland. In other words, this is a clearly-bounded problem of finite scope.
It's certainly a far smaller one than setting up a National Identity Scheme.
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