LETTER : Dunblane massacre: glorification of violence is not confined t o gun lovers

Sir: How is it that a man with a dubious sexual and mental history is allowed a gun licence? Or, more generally, how is it that there remains no formal system to prevent a person convicted of child sexual abuse in one area moving to another and regaining access to children, whilst the local authorities in the new area remain oblivious of the past history?

What is needed is a national database to which government agencies might refer in a range of situations, whether they be registering childminders, or issuing gun licences. This will pose difficult questions over civil liberties, yet this might be a price worth paying.

Oliver Strong

Brasenose College

Oxford