Abolish right to gun ownership, says Robertson

PEOPLE who want to own guns should have to give police a very good reason why they should have them, rather than the onus being on the police to prove why they should not, the shadow Scottish secretary, George Robertson, said yesterday.

The Cullen Inquiry into the Dunblane massacre should put this radical switch in gun controlpolicy "at the top of its agenda", he said. Mr Robertson, who lives in Dunblane, asked why police had to "show good cause" why somebody should not have a gun licence. "In other cases ... it is the other way round."

Police are expected to launch a nationwide guns amnesty in the wake of the massacre, with an announcement likely this week from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).

Jim Sharples, the Acpo president, discussed the issue with Sir Nicholas Lyell, the Attorney General, on Thursday. The Home Office and chief constables are nearing an agreement to allow unwanted and illegal firearms to be handed in at police stations.

The Labour leadership is known to favour tougher laws on gun ownership but is avoiding public statements in the immediate aftermath of the killings. Mr Robertson yesterday reaffirmed his personal view that it should be harder to acquire guns. He is supported by a mounting postbag. Even while he was being interviewed yesterday, local people were calling at his house to urge a harder line.

The MP, who took his own son out of a club run by killer Thomas Hamilton because it was run "like the Hitler Youth", said legislation was not a panacea.

"This was a guy deranged, crazed, out of control ... There is no gun law, or any law in the world, that would stand in the way of that. But we should certainly make it more difficult."