On 12 August 2021, a very troubled young man shot five people dead and then killed himself with a licensed shotgun at Keyham, near Plymouth. After the inquest into these deaths in March this year, calls for changes to firearms licensing law were made by the coroner and the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the IOPC. The main thrust of their recommendations was that shotguns should be licensed in the same way as sporting rifles.
On 29 June, the Home Office policing minister, Chris Philp MP, made a written statement to the Commons responding to these recommendations. In his statement, the minister said: “Public safety is our priority, but the measures to manage the risk to public safety must be proportionate and balanced with the
