Posted on 06/12/2006 4:34:21 PM PDT by 45Auto
The National Firearms Register promised by the Government in the aftermath of the Dunblane massacre has been condemned as "fundamentally flawed and not fit for purpose".
An internal police report describes the database, intended to carry information on everybody who has applied for a gun licence, as unworkable.
The scathing criticism makes a mockery of the upbeat assessment of the register by Charles Clarke, the former home secretary sacked over the foreign criminals deportation fiasco.
Three months ago, after the Government failed to deliver the database in time for the 10th anniversary of the Dunblane tragedy, he insisted that "good progress was being made".
But a report by Lancashire Police reveals that the current system is so riddled with problems that its officers had to abandon a pilot scheme for the National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS) last year.
In a letter from Lancashire police to the Association of Chief Police Officers' firearms working group, obtained by the British Association of Shooting and Conservation, the system is described as having "persistent and immense problems" and "delays of a magnitude which could not be reasonably expected".
The seven-page letter, which details dozens of other "significant problems", says: "Lancashire Constabulary felt unable to complete the NFLMS pilot at this present time. It is fundamentally flawed and not fit for purpose."
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, criticised the Government for failing to deliver the register.
"This is yet another Home Office fiasco," he said. "All we have had is delays and excuses."
Charlie Clydesdale, whose five-year-old daughter, Victoria, was killed at Dunblane, said: "The lack of progress after all these years is appalling. We were promised the register as a priority but nothing has happened and gun crime is still rising."
The establishment of a national firearms database was incorporated into the 1997 National Firearms (Amendment) Act, which introduced a handgun ban after Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 children and a teacher at Dunblane Primary School in Perthshire before turning the gun on himself in March 1996.
The register, which has already cost £5 million, was proposed after it emerged that Hamilton had been able to obtain a gun licence despite a police report which described him as an "unsavoury character with an unhealthy interest in young boys".
The database, which would be linked to the Police National Computer, would keep track of everyone who has a gun licence and those who have been judged unfit to be granted one.
At present, records are only held locally by police and are not available in other areas. The Home Office estimates that there are more than 300,000 illegal firearms in England and Wales.
Gill Marshall-Andrews, the chairman of the Gun Control Network, which campaigns for tighter controls on guns, called the Government's failure to introduce the database "incomprehensible".
"This is not rocket science," she said. "It should not be difficult to do unless there is a lack of will from the Home Office."
A spokesman for the Home Office said: "It is disappointing when a pilot reveals a problem as happened during testing phases of this project. However, this is the purpose of a pilot. The Government remains fully committed to this project."
Too much trouble, they should just declare all citizens criminals subject to arrest and get on with it.
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