Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997


The Firearms Act 1997 was the second of two Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1997 that amended the regulation of firearms within Great Britain. It was introduced by the newly elected Labour government of Tony Blair. The other Act was the Firearms Act 1997.

Background

The act was created in response to the Snowdrop Petition following the Dunblane Massacre. The previous Conservative government had followed the recommendations of the Cullen Report on the massacre and introduced the Firearms Act 1997 that banned "high calibre" handguns, greater than.22 calibre. This new act further banned the private possession of all cartridge ammunition handguns, regardless of calibre.
The only handguns still allowed following the ban were:
The number of recorded firearms offences in the United Kingdom increased after the law entered force. Excluding offences with air weapons, firearms offences peaked at 11,088 in 2005/2006, compared to only 4,904 in 1997. The number of offences involving firearms subsequently declined, but the 6,492 offences recorded in the year ending March 2018 is still a greater number than that in 1997. Handguns remain the most common kind of firearm used in crime in the UK, with 2,847 offences in the year ending March 2018.