§ Mr. Brayasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many letters he has received containing constructive criticisms or other comments upon the Green Paper on the Control of Firearms; and if he will list the principal categories of criticism in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. R. CarrA total of 5,747 letters was received by my Department, of which362W 1,174 were from hon. Members and 4,573 from members of the public. In addition, a number of organisations submitted detailed comments, which were in most cases the subject of further discussion with my hon. and learned Friend the Minister of State or with officials of my Department.
The proposals which attracted most critical comments were the following:
self-loading rifles and pump-action and repeater shotguns to be prohibited weapons (paragraph 35(a));
no new collections of firearms to be started; existing collections not to be extended; no new certificates to be granted for the possession of firearms as trophies or souvenirs (paragraphs 47 and 48);
shotguns to be subject to the same controls as rifles and pistols (paragraph 64);
power to be taken to require the marking of firearms with unique numbers (paragraph 67).
Many of those who commented on the Green Paper expressed the view that the penalties available to, or imposed by, the courts for offences under the Firearms Act 1968 were inadequate.
§ Mr. Brayasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list those proposals in the Green Paper on the Control of Firearms which he has decided are unsuitable for implementation; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. R. CarrI announced on 25th July—[Vol 860, c.488.]— in answer to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for King's Lynn (Mr. Brocklebank-Fowler) that we did not intend to maintain the proposal at paragraph 35(a) of the Green Paper that self-loading rifles, and pump-action and repeater shotguns, should be declared prohibited weapons.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and I are continuing our review of the other provisional proposals, and I have no statement to make at present.