U.K. "Ammunition for gun control"

[cuchulainn]

from Kable Net

http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/38F06D72F2E6D20A80256D35003E9149?OpenDocument

Ammunition for gun control

29 May 2003

The UK Government is aiming to create a national firearms database by August 2004, in a bid to control the illegal use of guns across the country

UK police forces will be tightening their grip on gun control following a green light from the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) for a long awaited national firearms database. The project is now expected to be operational by 31 August 2003, Lord Falconer, the Home Office minister, told Parliament on 20 May 2003.

The project, known as the firearms licensing management system, will provide a central database on every person in the UK who has applied for, or been granted, a firearms or shotgun certificate. It was on PITO's agenda as early as 1999, but suffered a series of setbacks.

A Home Office spokesperson told Government Computing News that the Government had been forced to abort several attempts at setting up the system. “A tender was already in place to create the interface, but it didn’t provide a solution that was satisfactory to police forces,†said the spokesperson.

Lord Falconer told the House of Lords that the central database will assist local systems in enforcing gun licence law by enabling easy assess to information on who has a licence and who has been refused one, “But it does not obviate the need for a local means of enforcing the licensing system,†he said.

PITO is currently evaluating the responses to its invitation to tender for the project, published in October 2002. The tender specified that the new system must interface with the Police National Computer and local force systems.

Details of the tendering process are being kept under wraps. Lord Falconer said that six suppliers had responded to the invitation to tender, but that the names of potential suppliers “were currently being treated as commercial in confidenceâ€.

Source: Kable's Government Computing
Publication date: 29/05/2003 12:26:55 PM

Copyright (c) 2003 Kable Limited

 

[Pilgrim]

It sounds like the U.K. is still blaming their gun problem on those who are or who were properly licensed.

 

[rrader]

The next logical step for the UK is implantable tracking GPS transponders placed in each registered firearm and firearms "holder" (with actual ownership of every firearm reserved to the Crown) so that any suspicius movement pattern of the two objects (firearm and "holder") could be monitored and investigated.

 

[Mk VII]

the fact that it has taken them so long to get round to implementing this (since 1997) section of the Bill (they never wanted it written into it in the first place) suggests that neither the police or the Home Office considers it to be of any great value.

 

[longeyes]

Too bad the database won't include the "non-certificated" who are the ones likely to blow your head off.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Rarely does a day pass when I fail to feel grateful to our forefathers for having rebelled against the English and founded a republic.

What a nation of bleating sheep!