§ Sir Anthony GrantTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons in the last five years have been convicted of crimes involving a legally licensed smooth-bore short-barrelled gun, under 24 in in length.
§ Mr. John PattenThe information requested is not available from the records of court proceedings held centrally.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will take steps to ensure that statistics on the type of weapons which have been used in the commission of crimes are kept;
392W(2) on how many occasions in each of the last 10 years upon which a firearm has been used in the commission of a crime the offender has been licensed to own (a) a shotgun or (b) another firearm;
(3) what information he has concerning the numbers of offences committed using firearms in Switzerland in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement;
(4) on how many occasions in each of the last 10 years a firearm used in the commission of a crime has been found to be a firearm stolen from an individual licensed to hold such a weapon;
(5) on how many occasions in each of the last 10 years a self-loading rifle has been reported stolen.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggInformation on notifiable offences recorded by the police in which firearms were reported to have been used or stolen is published annually in "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales" chapter 3 of the edition for 1986 (Cm. 233), copies of which are in the Library. The information collected relates to the principal weapon used in the offence, as reported by the victim; only the main class of weapon (rifle, pistol, air-weapon etc.) is recorded because more detailed information could not be collected reliably from victims whose reports are often imprecise. In a large proportion of these offences the weapon used is not recovered. The other information asked for is not available from the records held centrally.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has concerning the numbers and types of firearms which are issued to citizens of Switzerland as part of that country's civil defence policy; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggSuch information as is available to me suggests that Swiss males over the age of 20 may be issued with a firearm, usually an automatic one, to enable them to participate in military service.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had concerning the case for individuals serving in the Territorial Army continuing to practise using self-loading rifles at private shooting clubs; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggNone. We have considered the possibility of exempting certain categories of persons, or members of certain organisations, from the proposed restrictions on full-bore self-loading rifles, but have: concluded that any such exemptions would seriously weaken the new controls and discriminate against legitimate shooters who happened to fall outside these: categories.