Anger as Farage calls for end to handgun ban: Ukip leader urged to visit Dunblane to understand impact of 1996 shootings



Ban on handguns in the UK was introduced after 1996 Dunblane massacre



Ukip leader under pressure over policies and personalities

Councillor David Silvester blamed storms on legalising gay marriage

Mr Farage said women who have children are 'worth less' in the City

Dismissed 2010 manifesto as 'drivel' - but he signed the foreword

Nigel Farage was engulfed in a fresh controversy yesterday when he said the ban on owning handguns was ‘crackers’.

The Ukip leader said his party would legalise and license firearms for ‘responsible’ owners who kept them locked up.

But he was immediately criticised for the ‘stupid’ comments.

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Nigel Farage faced tough questions during a radio phone-in, where he suggested that the ban on hand guns should be lifted

Mr Farage appeared uncomfortably and close to losing his temper when grilled about his manifesto and his comments about women being 'worth less' in the City



Most handguns were outlawed by the Tory Government after the Dunblane massacre in 1996.

Labour went further in 1997 and banned all handguns, including .22 pistols used in the Olympics.

Mr Farage said: ‘I think the knee-jerk legislation that Tony Blair brought in that meant the British Olympic pistol team have to go to France to even practise, was just crackers. If you criminalise handguns then only the criminals carry the guns.’

Peter Squires, professor of criminology at Brighton University, said Mr Farage’s comments were ‘irresponsible’.

He added: ‘If public safety is a consideration then it’s a particularly stupid thing to say.’

Earlier this week Mr Farage came under fire after Ukip councillor David Silvester suggested the recent floods were linked to the legalisation of gay marriage.

‘I think the knee jerk legislation that Blair brought in that meant that the British Olympic pistol team have to go to France to even practice, was just crackers' Ukip leader Nigel Farage

The party leader provoked further outrage by saying women who had children were worth less to City firms. His bad week got worse when he was hit over the head with a placard in Kent.

Opponents said the remarks were a ' a green light for an increase in criminality' and ignored the 'the depth of feeling that still exists on what happened that fateful day'.

Mr Farage was taking questions on a radio phone-in when he was bombarded with questions about the extreme views of some of his elected councillors and candidates.

The Ukip leader tried to laugh the questions off, insisting all of those responsible for controversial comments used be members of the Tory party.

But he courted controversy himself with the suggestion on LBC 97.3 that handgun laws should be torn up.

A ban on owning most handguns was introduced by John Major’s government in the wake of the Dunblane shooting, when Thomas Hamilton killed 16 primary school children and a teacher before turning the gun on himself.

It was then extended by Tony Blair's Labour government in 1997 to cover all handguns, including .22 pistols used in Olympic competitions.

A listener, named only as John from County Durham, told Mr Farage he had never supported the ban, adding that ‘law abiding people who follow the law, are mature, should be able to get a licence to hold these sorts of guns’.

Mr Farage insisted he did not want to move to the ‘absolutely crazy’ system in the U.S. where ‘you can go and buy automatic repeating rifles down at the local gun shop that looks more like a supermarket'.

Mr Farage added: ‘I think the knee jerk legislation that Blair brought in that meant that the British Olympic pistol team have to go to France to even practice, was just crackers.

‘And, if you criminalise handguns then only the criminals carry the guns.

‘And, it’s really interesting that since Blair brought that piece of law in gun crime doubled in the next five years in this country. ‘

Mr Farage added: ‘I think we need a proper gun licensing system which to a large extent we already have and I think the ban on hand guns is ludicrous.’

The ban on handguns was introduced in the wake of the Dunblane massacre when Thomas Hamilton murdered 16 five-year-old school children and their teacher Gwen Mayor before killing himself

Asked if Ukip’s policy on gun control would be to allow handguns to be ‘kept in the locked box and you’ve got your license’, he replied: ‘’Absolutely.’

Official figures from the FBI in the U.S. show that there were 6,371 handgun homicides in the in 2012, and the number has risen every year since 2010.

Poll Should Britain allow people to keep handguns in their home, as UKIP leader Nigel Farage has suggested? No Yes Should Britain allow people to keep handguns in their home, as UKIP leader Nigel Farage has suggested? No 34490 votes

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Labour MP Keith Vaz, who chairs the Commons home affairs committee, said: 'The logical consequence of relaxing gun laws, as suggested by Mr Farage, is an increase in gun use which should be discouraged rather than encouraged. Any change could possibly act as a green light for an increase in criminality.

'Our legislation makes Britain a beacon of safety and it would be completely irresponsible to change the law governing hand guns.'

Margaret Mitchell, Conservative justice spokesman in the Scottish parliament, said: 'For Nigel Farage to link such ill-advised comments with this tragic event is completely inappropriate.



'What happened in Dunblane is still fresh and raw in the memories of people and someone like Nigel Farage should not be making these kind of throwaway comments.

'Perhaps if he visited the town he would realise the depth of feeling that still exists on what happened that fateful day.

'When you have the leader of UKIP making remarks like this it’s no wonder the party’s views are largely ignored in Scotland.'

AT-A-GLANCE: JUST SOME OF THE POLICIES FARAGE WANTS TO DITCH

Mr Farage denied having any idea what was in the Ukip manifesto in 2010, but he put his name to the foreword (above).

Some of the more eye-catching policies in Ukip's 2010 manifesto includ e :

Restrict the number of foreigners on British football teams, which it believes is behind their ‘lack of success’

Ban the burqa and hold referendums on new mosques



Axe the Ministry of Defence

Impose ‘proper dress’ in theatres, hotels and restaurants

Investigate alleged discrimination against white people at the BBC

Paint trains in traditional colours

Deploy soldiers on the street



Enforcing a dress code for taxi drivers



Make the London Underground's Circle line a circle again

Give MPs more freedom on their expenses

Return the crown to pint glasses



During the programme Mr Farage was repeatedly challenged on why his party attracts people with controversial views.

He has spent all week fielding questions about Ukip councillor David Silvester, who suggested legalising gay marriage caused the recent storms which battered Britain.

On Monday Mr Farage also gave a speech in the City, where he claimed mothers are ‘worth less’ to employers in the City than men.

He suggested women who take time off to have children are paid less because they lose contact with their client base and struggle to succeed when they return to work.

Hours later he was being clobbered over the head with a placard as he tried to enter push his way through an angry protest in Kent.

And then yesterday he floundered during a BBC interview, when he was forced to disown the whole of his party’s 2010 manifesto, after being hit with a host of bizarre proposals he knew nothing about.

Ukip promised to improve Britain by painting trains in traditional colours, deploying soldiers on the street and enforcing a dress code for taxi drivers and theatregoers.

Despite standing on the manifesto as a candidate in the 2010 election, Mr Farage today dismissed it as ‘486 pages of drivel’.

The MEP - who had briefly stood down as leader at the time to focus on an unsuccessful run for a Commons seat - insisted he had not even read the document.

'I didn't read it, it was drivel, 486 pages of drivel, I didn't read it, nor did the party leader, it was a nonsense, and we've put that behind us and moved onto a professional footing,' he said.

'We had a manifesto, and I'm going to put some inverted commas around it that was produced in 2010, it was basically a series of policy discussion papers that was put up on the website as a manifesto.









'It was 486 pages long, I'm pleased to say that the idiot that wrote it has now left us and joined the Conservatives, so there is some traffic going back the other way, and they're very welcome to him.'

David Campbell Bannerman MEP was the main author of the manifesto, and is now a Tory.



However, it later emerged that he had put his name to the foreword of the manifesto.

The faltering performance came after the Ukip leader, who worked in a brokerage firm before entering politics, caused outrage this week by saying women who have children are 'worth less' to their employers when they return to work.

He claimed the City was no longer sexist as in the past, but said women who leave their client base to take ‘two or three years off’ to have a baby, put themselves at a disadvantage.

Pressed on the remarks today, he appeared to come close to losing his temper.

He told LBC 97.3: ' Maybe what we should do is just lie, maybe next time I get a question like this I’ll just lie, I’ll just do what everybody else does, I’ll say something that isn’t true and there will be no debate or argument about it.



'The fact is, you know, there are now one million men who are bringing up families at home with the women out working, so there are some changes happening in society.

