ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170037
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LONDON
SOURCE: Associated Press
In response to the massacre of 16 children in a Scottish school last spring, the government announced plans Wednesday to ban almost all public ownership of hand guns.
But parents of the victims say the proposals are not tough enough. They want all guns banned - no exceptions.
Home Secretary Michael Howard said Britain will introduce legislation prohibiting members of the public from owning any handgun above .22 caliber. Even .22 caliber handguns will have to be kept at licensed gun clubs.
``We will ban all handguns from people's homes,'' he said.
Gun enthusiasts protest that they are being ``demonized'' for the act of a lone killer. But the Dunblane parents, backed by the opposition Labor Party, demand a complete ban.
``We have argued all along that this is an issue on which there must be no compromise,'' the victims' parents said in a statement. ``What we have before us is exactly that - a compromise, a compromise that will result in the deaths of more innocent people.''
Armed with two .357-caliber Smith and Wesson revolvers and two 9mm Browning pistols, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton opened fire on a kindergarten in the Scottish village of Dunblane, killing 14 children, their teacher and then himself. He shot 105 rounds within four minutes with the guns, all legally registered.
Britain already has stringent gun control laws and Howard told the House of Commons the government's proposals represent ``some of the toughest gun control laws in the world.''
``We believe that it is possible to give the public the protection that it rightly requires and deserves without going too far as to put in place the complete prohibition on the ownership of handguns,'' Howard said.
``And we believe that if it is possible to provide that protection without a complete ban, then it is the government's duty to take that course.''
He urged Parliament to back the legislation and said he was confident it could be law by Christmas.
The proposals would lead to the destruction of at least 160,000 of the 200,000 handguns legally held at present, Howard said. It would have no effect on rifles and shotguns.
The Labor Party, which has a double-digit lead over the governing Conservative Party in opinion polls, pledged to back the bill, but called for a ban on all private handguns.
``Let us resolve that the lasting legacy of the evil that visited Dunblane on March 13 will be the complete outlawing of handguns so that this kind of atrocity can never ever happen again,'' said Labor lawmaker George Robertson, the party's spokesman on Scottish affairs, who lives in Dunblane.
The government's gun proposals are more stringent than those recommended by Lord Cullen in a 200-page report released Wednesday on the Dunblane massacre.
He called for disabling self-loading pistols and revolvers used in target shooting when kept at home, or banning their possession by individuals. Howard said the government believes keeping handguns at home is unsafe.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB