Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 - Background

Background

The act was created in response to the Snowdrop Petition following the Dunblane Massacre. The previous Conservative government had followed the recommendations of the Cullen Report on the massacre and introduced the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 that banned "high calibre" handguns, greater than .22 calibre (5.6 mm). This new (No. 2) act further banned the private ownership of all cartridge ammunition handguns, regardless of calibre.

The only handguns still allowed following the ban were:

  • Antique and muzzle-loading black powder guns
  • Guns of historic interest whose ammunition is no longer available ("Section 7.1" weapons)
  • Guns of historic interest with current calibres ("Section 7.3" weapons)
  • Air pistols
  • Guns which fall outside the Home Office definition of "handguns".
Notes

Read more about this topic:  Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997

Famous quotes containing the word background:

    They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    ... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.
    Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)