By Gillian Ellison

Published at 15:47, Wednesday, 10 November 2010

CUMBRIA’S public health chief says some GPs could play a greater role in gun licence assessments.

It follows a report carried out in the wake of the Copeland shootings which concluded that Derrick Bird owned his guns lawfully.

The review, by Adrian Whiting, chairman of the firearms and licensing working group with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), also said firearms licensing processes used by county police were “robust and administered professionally”.

As part of the review, Mr Whiting proposed that GPs should be notified of applications for licences or renewals.

The British Medical Association (BMA) reacted to this and said it would be impossible for doctors to predict whether patients who own firearms could harm others in the future and that it would be unreasonable to ask this of GPs.

But John Ashton, Cumbria’s public health director, said some GPs could increase their skills and get involved in the process.

“What I have suggested was that GPs could have a role but not all of them,” said Prof Ashton. “There could maybe be a panel of about 10 to 20 GPs in the county that could have special training and perhaps also be part of a national group.”

He said the group could develop specialist expertise and become skilled in risk assessments for people applying for a firearms licence.

“If someone wants a gun then they would have to go to this panel who would then talk to their GP and help assess the person to see if they were suitable,” said Prof Ashton.

He said it was important to recognise however that there was no evidence to believe that if further licensing arrangements had been in place that the June 2 tragedies would not have happened.

Mr Whiting said the health service held no information which would have given concern over Bird’s possession of firearms.

But Prof Ashton added that the creation of a GP panel could help to provide a more rigorous procedure.

Bird, 52, left 12 people dead and 11 injured during his gun rampage which ended when he turned the gun on himself.

The independent review was called for by Craig Mackey, Cumbria’s chief police constable. He said it confirmed that officers could not have used their firearms licensing processes to identify Bird as a risk or to prevent the tragedy.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk