Tightening gun control laws won't help

The rampage of 52-year-old Derrick Bird in the northern English county of Cumbria has sparked a debate about tightening gun control laws in the UK. The daily The Irish Times writes that only a complete ban on weapons would make sense: "Bird had held his shotgun licence for 15 years, and that for the rifle since 2007. This was possible because his conviction for theft in the 1990s did not involve a custodial sentence. And, while questions have been raised about police laxity over the home visits that are supposed to accompany licence renewal applications, there has been no suggestion that anything in Bird's behaviour might have indicated to friends or the police that he was not a fit person to hold the licences. Short of banning firearms it is difficult to see how someone like him could be prevented from holding guns."

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