Peter Squires calls for a root-and-branch rethink on gun legislation in Great Britain

The 22-year-old, armed with a shotgun, shot Maxine Davison, 51, his mother, three-year-old Sophie Martyn, her father, Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, in the Keyham area of the city.

The inquest, which ruled that all five had been unlawfully killed by Davison, who then took his own life, concluded on Monday, with the jury was highly critical of Devon and Cornwall Police’s firearms licensing unit.

They also cited national failings with the failure of successive governments to implement the findings of the Cullen Report following the Dunblane massacre in 1996.

A statement issued by the families of Lee and Sophie Martyn, Mr Washington and Mrs Shepherd said: “We will never be able to understand or comprehend why Davison did what he did. It was an act of pure evil.

“However, we now know that this evil act was facilitated and enabled by a series of failings and incompetence from the people and organisations that are supposed to keep us safe. In particular, Devon and Cornwall Police failed us.”

Prof Squires told Express.co.uk: “I suppose I’ve not been so focused on the individual case but more that this is another event of exactly the kind we’ve been encountering for a long time.

“It points yet again to this sense that the police weren’t really doing that job properly and the system was not equipped to enable them to do so.

“I don’t want to be blase and say I’ve seen this all before but over the years I’ve seen this lots of times. This one seems to generate more traction – the particular nature of this guy, the fact that the police were implicated in giving him his guns back and weren’t monitoring properly in a police force which has perhaps the largest number of licensees.

“So it’s kind of cumulative – the more you hear about it, the worse it sounds.”

Asked what needed to change, Mr Squires said: “There have been lots of opportunities, the Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) report in 2015 tagged a whole load of problems with the licensing system and that report was left to sit on a shelf.

“There needs to be a complete upgrade in the statutory nature of the guidance to police officers. There needs to be a national decision-making package that they have in many other areas of policing.

“You’ll always get variation – 43 different police forces will do it with their own kind of nuances and degrees of expertise or due diligence but the gaps are wide and clear at the moment.

“I still think it comes down to that fundamental thing where it being a thoroughly under-resourced process and that goes back to the question of licensing fees.”

Currently, a firearms licence cost £88 for five years, Prof Squires pointed out.

Significantly increasing the cost of a licence would do two things, Prof Squires said.

He said: “It might weed some people out, which is fine, people who don’t really need the guns, but it would also give the police the resources to do it properly

“My feeling is at the moment the police do it on a shoestring, they don’t resource or train and they don’t upgrade, they do very little proactive work, they wait for the licence to come up for renewal after five years and they treat it as a clerical process.

“That’s my firm belief rather than a public safety process, so they do the minimum, they don’t do random visits, checks, they don’t go back to look at whether the security arrangements are what they should be.

“I think this kind of complacency runs through the whole system, ‘this is the way we’ve always done it and we can’t change and nothing will make any difference’ is the line I keep hearing.”

Increasing the resources available to the police would enable them to look more closely at a person’s background before granting them a licence, Prof Squires suggested.

Davison himself was granted a shotgun licence despite being described during the inquest as having a history of emotional and behavioural difficulties, with jurors shown a disturbing clip of him attacking a teenage boy in a park following a verbal altercation. He also searched the internet for information about incel serial killers.

Prof Squires said: “This ought to be part of routine checking. His mother called the police on him to say he’s got a gun and I don’t think he should have one.

“Someone living in the same household is exactly the kind of person the police should be asking: ‘Are you happy with this gun in the home?’ What’s needed is a more diligent search, a more thorough risk assessment.”

He added: “It’s hard to predict and prevent rare events and that’s what these are, by the nature of it.

“But when someone is giving off red flags, alarm bells ought to ring and we ought to have systems for picking up on those alarm bells.

“I think they ought now to put rifles and shotguns on the same security power. There’s slightly more permissive licensing of shotguns and rifles.

“There ought to be a more certain definition of what counts as a good reason and I think because the legislation is so old, there’s a whole new category of firearms and shooting disciplines that didn’t exist in 1968 that we need to take a serious look at.

“These new guns are basically assault rifles in anything but name and it’s the assault rifle that is the effective mass killer.

“I think it needs a root-and-branch rethink. There are a whole load of new guns, new ways of getting them, and new ways of using them that just in exist in 1968. So with what we’re dealing with is out-of-date legislation and very complicated legislation.”

In April 2016, information-sharing processes between GPs and police were introduced with the aim of ensuring that people licensed to possess firearm and shotgun certificates were medically fit.

The British Medical Association has issued guidance for GPs about firearms licensing but doctors are under no obligation to share information and Davison’s refused to do so with the police.

Prof Squires acknowledged: “I think there’s an edging-forward in a number of areas, but the underlying legislation here goes back nearly 60 years to the Firearms Act 1968.

“I think they all now to put rifles and shotguns on the same security power. There’s a slightly more permissive licensing of shotguns and rifles.

“There ought to be a more certain definition of what counts as a good reason and I think because the legislation is so old, there’s a whole new category of firearms and shooting disciplines that didn’t exist in 1968 that we need to take a serious look at.

“These new guns are basically assault rifles in anything but name and it’s the assault rifle that is the effective mass killer.

A spokesman for Firearms UK said: “We would like to express my sympathy for the families and friends of the victims of this individual’s disgusting actions.

“The first thing to point out is that the system doesn’t need to be made stricter but that existing legislation needs to be enforced properly. On the rare occasion this happens with legally held firearms the breakdown seems to be police ignoring countless warnings and failing to enforce the current laws, with the end result of innocent people being hurt and innocent firearms enthusiasts being made the scapegoats. The individuals and associated regulatory bodies should be held responsible not the law abiding shooting community.”

Referring to Alek Minassian, who in 2018 used a vehicle to run over pedestrians in Toronto, killing 11 of them, the spokesman added: “It is very difficult to legislate for people like him and there was of course a similarly motivated incel killer in Canada who did not have access to firearms and instead chose to hire a van and he killed and injured many more people than Davison. The key is flagging up such individuals and preventing them from hurting people with any method. Not targeting the 99.9 percent of people who harmed no one.

“Arbitrary legislation against gun owners would very possibly lead to a substitution effect with even deadlier effect as demonstrated by the incel killer in Canada.”

In a statement issued after the inquest verdict last week, Luke Pollard, Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, likewise voiced his concerns.

He said: “Today is a difficult day for our city. My confidence in Devon and Cornwall Police has been shaken by this catalogue of catastrophic failings.

“The Inquest has shone a light on broken gun laws and licensing systems that are not fit for purpose. Firearms licensing must be beyond doubt and uphold the highest standards. I do not have confidence in Devon and Cornwall Police to issue firearms licences, and every gun certificate they have issued must be reviewed in light of the failings laid bare by the Inquest.”

Mr Pollard, who is also the shadow Minister for the Armed Forces, continued: “I am angry. Our community is angry. We want to see comprehensive change to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again.

“My thoughts remain with the victims, their loved ones, survivors, witnesses and everyone else in our city who has been affected. Please remember that help and support is still available.”

Devon & Cornwall Police Chief Constable Will Kerr said: “Currently we are faced with 43 police forces independently interpreting discretionary guidance from a law created in 1968. Both the Firearms Act of 1968 and its associated guidance should be reviewed to change the permissive presumption in favour of being issued with a certificate or licence.

“We would support a statutory position that reverses that presumption and creates a sensible burden in the application process on satisfying the police that an application is safe to be granted and the licence holder is an appropriate person to hold a firearm.

“Changes such as this would ensure that every force is learning from events such as Keyham to prevent anything similar happening again.”

He added: “I will be doing everything possible to influence nationally around statutory guidance and legislation becoming clearer and more rigorous for chief constables to follow and will be working closely with colleagues from the NPCC.

“I accept Devon & Cornwall Police has failed our communities in regard to Jake Davison, but had there been clearer national guidance, direction and specific legislation concerning firearms licensing – decision making locally may well have been very different.”