Jacking up firearms fees will cost SMEs £3.5 MILLION. Thanks, Plod

Blaming the shooting community? Sort of, but not maliciously

The Solitaire briefing officers also mentioned the Dunblane shootings, where, despite numerous warnings from the public and other police employees, Central Scotland police allowed Thomas Hamilton to have possession of firearms. Hamilton went on to murder an entire class of five-year-old children and their teacher before turning his guns on himself. Had the police force heeded the warnings they were given, it is probable that the murders could have been prevented.

“Mention Dunblane to the firearms community as an example of something that could have been prevented and you're going to get shredded to pieces because concerns were raised well before,” commented our source. “It's a valid point to say we can raise concerns – indeed, we're happy to raise concerns about dodgy people – but who's listening?”

Your correspondent did have a quick look at the Cullen Enquiry's findings into the Dunblane shootings. While there is detailed individual testimony from people including Deputy Chief Constable Douglas McMurdo of Central Scotland police, the policeman who overruled concerns about Hamilton's suitability to own firearms, it seems Cullen didn't ask any rifle or pistol club officials about Hamilton's membership or concerns raised by clubs about him, of which there were apparently many. Perhaps history has been distorted by Cullen's failure to get testimony from the shooters who reportedly raised concerns about Hamilton?

Returning to the Solitaire briefing, our source was generally very positive about what the police are trying to achieve.

“The briefing officers did ask, has anyone here raised concerns about people before, and a lot of people said yes”, continued our mole. “Clearly there is already some public engagement with the police when there are concerns. I think each club has got methods in place to say, if this person's a bit dodgy we won't keep them on as a member of a club.”

One exchange rather summed up the whole experience, in our source's view.

The counter-terrorism officer delivering the briefing said: “Look, we're not trying to target you as a community.” One of the audience piped up: “Don't worry, we're used to it!” ®