some of the easily converted starting pistols handed in during the local amnesty. (0982695)

NEARLY four years after the States agreed new gun laws they have still not been enacted, but the Home Department said they were ‘progressing well’.

But after the shootings in Cumbria last week in which 12 people were murdered, Home Department chief officer Paul Whitfield wanted to reassure islanders that the restrictions here were already very stringent.

‘The gun laws are modern and up to date, the amendments are very specific and would not necessarily have made a significant difference in this case.’

The model of hunting rifle with a telescopic sight that Derrick Bird used to kill people in Cumbria has been banned in Guernsey since 1998.

It was three years ago last month that there was a double fatal shooting at Fort Hommet. A man shot his estranged wife with a semi-automatic pistol before turning it on himself.

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