Thousands of gun licences were granted across England and Wales in the year to March – as a new scheme will see doctors alerted to ownership of the weapons via GP records.
The new rules, which only apply in England, come almost a year after 22-year-old Jake Davison shot and killed five people – including his mother and a three-year-old girl – with a pump-action shotgun in Plymouth on August 12 last year, before turning the gun on himself. It later emerged that Davison’s gun and certificate had previously been removed after he allegedly assaulted two youths, before having the weapon returned.
The mass shooting led to the Home Office asking all police forces to review their firearm licensing practices, while additional safety checks were introduced. Across England and Wales, 24,841 new applications for firearm and shotgun certificates were granted in the year to March, according to the latest Home Office data.
That was 97.1% of all applications made, with 740 refused. A further 121,249 applications to renew an existing certificate were granted, while 280 were refused.
The two nations’ police forces also revoked 1,460 certificates over the period. Anyone who acquires or owns a firearm or shotgun must hold a certificate issued by the chief officer of the police force area where they live, unless they are exempt.
To issue a certificate, the chief officer must be satisfied that the applicant has a good reason for having the firearm, they are fit to be entrusted with one, and that public safety or peace will not be endangered. It can be refused if the officer does not think the applicant fulfils the criteria, and one can be revoked if they think the holder can no longer be trusted to have it, is “unsound of mind”, would pose a danger to the public or no longer has a good reason to hold it.
As of the end of March, there were 539,212 people in England and Wales with a firearm or shotgun certificate (or both), down from 565,929 a year earlier, and 586,351 in March 2020. The new rules mean GPs can add a “digital marker” to a patient’s medical record after being notified by the police that someone has a firearm or shotgun licence.
The system is intended to remind doctors to consider alerting the police if a gun owner starts to suffer from a medical condition that may make having the weapon unsafe. In the wake of the Plymouth shooting, the Government had already introduced new rules requiring anyone applying for a gun licence to fill out a medical form signed by a doctor.
Dr Peter Holden, the British Medical Association’s lead for firearms licensing policy, said the new digital marker was a positive step in improving the licensing process. He added: “However, the public should be under no illusion that this will be an overnight solution. This new scheme will apply only to new applicants or people renewing their licences, so it will take up to five years before all licensed gun owners are included within this framework.
“Of course, when there is a diagnosis of concern, GPs will continue to use all of the information in front of them and where there is a danger to the wider public or the patient themselves, they will alert authorities. The introduction of the marker though must not imply that the buck for public safety stops with the GP; as the police have acknowledged, they themselves are ultimately responsible for firearms licensing.”
