Every so often, Nigel Farage finds a new way to hit headlines by saying the most controversial statements he can. Farage has again come under fire for his adamant stance that the handgun laws implemented after the Dunblane massacre were unnecessary. Ever the pragmatist, Farage deemed these comments appropriate just after the 30th anniversary of one of Britain’s worst mass shootings.

Most firearms with barrels <30cm or total lengths <60cm are banned under the Firearms Act 1997. While regular air pistols are unregulated, high powered air pistols such as those used by target pistol shooters in the Olympics are regulated as section 5 firearms. They are more legal than other weapons as they are practically quite difficult to use as a concealed and carryable weapon, with both air and muzzle loading weapons being difficult to reload in comparison to regular handguns. 

On March 13, 1996, gunman Thomas Hamilton shot and killed 16 children and one teacher at Dunblane Primary School. This remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history, directly leading to the 1997 Firearms Act. 

Prior to the act, a home office study found that between 1992-94, 14% of firearm homicides were committed with legally owned weapons. However, this does not change that since the Act, there have been no mass shootings committed using a pistol in Britain.

Defending his claims, Farage argued “it was ludicrous that the British Olympic shooting team had to go to Calais to practice.” Characteristically for Farage, this outlandish statement was limited only by the truth – the English Small-bore Shooting Union’s Academy (which feeds into the British Shooting Pathway) states that its training sessions are held in both Aldersley, near Birmingham, and the Lord Roberts Centre in Surrey. The National Smallbore Shooting Association’s flagship air weapon event, the British Open Air Gun championship, is also held at Aldersley, which includes dedicated air weapon competitions that both shooting clubs and the Olympic shooting team members regularly compete in.

For years, Farage’s complaints over the 1997 Firearms Act have been questioned by other politicians, with even Ed Davey throwing his hat in the ring, accusing Farage of trying to emulate “Trump’s America.” 

America certainly springs to mind when one considers mass shootings, with the US having the most mass shootings in the world by far between 1966-2012. Firearms experts have also weighed in, with Peter Squires professor of criminology calling it a “particularly stupid thing to say” as “It opens up the problem we have dealt with successfully.” 

In 2014, Farage was quoted as arguing that “there is almost no link between sensible, decent, people – under a registration system… and crime on the streets.” This link of gun crime with intent is quite surprising from Farage, when he has attempted to link immigrants with being more likely to committing violent sexual crimes. If some people are inherently unpredictable or dangerous, then surely giving wider access to guns, even if vetted, would increase the risk of firearms related crimes?

Of course, not only are Farage’s claims about immigrants provably false but if one only considers overall pistol related crimes rather than mass shootings as above, the number of handgun related crimes dropped between 1996 and 2019 from 3347 to 2726. 

One of the main criticisms raised about UK firearms law, among certificate holders is the significant backlog for applications and firearms renewals, most notably in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, and Hertfordshire. 

However, this is ignorant of the real issue – internal inspectors have found the current system to be characterised by “poor and inconsistent decision-making” within the police force. BASC, the UK’s largest shooting organisation, reacted to this inspection by stating “the legislation is already robust – it is ineffective licensing practice that creates risk.”

This raises an interesting question. If the shooters don’t want such a policy to be imposed, who is Farage pandering to when he tries to increase firearm access?

Any discussion of firearms law would be remiss not to mention the hyper capitalist elephant in the room; what has caused the right-wing shift towards US style libertarianism in recent UK political debate? 

Communist theorists writing during WWII would argue that the development of politics in such a manner is a reactionary response from capitalism in times of crisis, such as the collapse of the middle class.  Contemporary UK news has shown Reform councillors have adopted libertarian habits of funding new roles in local government to cut down on local government spending, similar to the US DOGE project.

Farage’s success in aping the Republicans has caused a shift to the right in the Conservative party and a shift to the right in the Overton window. 

Therefore, as political debate in the UK lurches further to the right, it is up to left-wing political leaders and writers to shift the narrative away from Trumpist libertarianism