Government set to ban hand-guns from homes

New measures to curb hand-guns will be announced this week when the Government publishes the findings of Lord Cullen's inquiry into the Dunblane massacre.

Details will not be finalised until after ministers receive the report on Monday night, but they are poised to ban the holding of hand-guns outside officially-licensed clubs, which would also have to obey tough new security rules.

This would fall short of the complete prohibition which some campaigners have called for. It would also attract opposition from the gun lobby on the grounds of infringement of liberty and the cost to clubs of tighter security.

However, the Government's preferred measures would avoid the need to compensate gun-owners which would arise if the guns were simply made illegal.

The Scottish Office and the Home Office, which are jointly handling the response to Dunblane, have concluded that taking no action is not an option.

They believe that, while their plan would not have much effect on the use of guns in crime, it would reduce drastically the likelihood of unbalanced people like Thomas Hamilton or Michael Ryan having access to firearms.

Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, and Michael Forsyth, Secretary of State for Scotland, are expected to make a joint statement to the Commons, probably on Wednesday. Space has been reserved in the legislative programme to get new measures on to the statute book quickly.

The Government's determination to press ahead with controls reflects the bitter public reaction when the Tory majority on the Commons Home Affairs Committee came out against an all-out ban on hand-guns.

Labour's tough stand on the issue, and the emotional speech at its party conference by a Dunblane parent, have driven home the political necessity of some action.