Extracts from a report marked EXCLUSIVE in -
The Scotsman
28 February, 1998
Jenny Booth
Home Affairs Correspondent
"THREE key gun licensing mistakes by Central Scotland police which contributed to the Dunblane massacre were being repeated by other Scottish forces, according to a long-suppressed police report obtained by The Scotsman…
"The damning criticisms are contained in a report by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary circulated to all chief constables before the Dunblane killings, but withdrawn from publication as soon as the massacre took place. All later emerged at Lord Cullen's inquiry into the killings as key errors contributing to the killings."
The article goes on to predict that such gun owners as are left in Scotland face an Orwellian regime of constant surveillance,
"The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland [note: a body with absolutely no basis in statute - no more legitimacy than the Freemasons] has moved to set up a national computerised gun licensing system, believed to be among the first in the world…
"Built into the system should be a facility to notify automatically the gun licensing unit of any incidents or disturbances at a gun owner's address…"
Thus, ownership of a legally licensed firearm is "probable cause" for suspicion of criminal behaviour. No doubt the "Incident Response Unit" will turn up with their MP5s and HK93s at the first opportunity. The current climate of public and political opinion and the fact the law is so badly drafted allows police to refuse certificates at their whim - even though I'm a member of a shooting club and have been shooting for some twenty-five years I am deemed to not have a "good reason" for owning firearms and am refused a firearms certificate.
Petty bureaucrats and policemen have had arbitrary powers completely contrary to natural justice and common law ever since the Firearms Act of 1920 and the increased leeway now given to the police - as a result of their incompetence in the Thomas Hamilton case - is a dream for authoritarians everywhere.
I can hardly wait 'til "the war on drugs" gets going…
Johnny <johnny@dvc.org.uk>