A BOLTON firearms expert has slammed a local MP's proposals to clamp down on firearms as "totally ill informed."

Brian Scott Ford was criticising comments made by Bolton-west MP Tom Sackville in a Bolton Evening News article last week, in which he called for a total ban on handguns.

Speaking on the Home Office Minister's opinions, Mr Ford said: "He is totally ill informed. He mentions rapid-fire machine pistols and Uzi machine pistols, not realising both are machine guns - which have been outlawed in England since the late 1930s. "Yet despite being made illegal, they are still used. They come in from the continent and will continue to do so even with a total ban.

"All a ban will do is take licences out of circulation, not the total number of handguns on the streets.

"The ban will only hit the law abiding citizens who have licences, not the criminals. It will have not have any effect on them. In fact it is likely to increase the numbers of guns which will find themselves illegally on the streets.

"Mr Sackville also mentions he would exempt 'unexciting' small bore target weapons. Again, he fails to realise that these so called 'unexciting' guns are used as the perfect weapon for gangsters because they are easily concealed. "But more importantly, ammunition for it is far more readily available. It is no good having a gun if you can not get the ammunition and that is why I am certain there are more people killed in this country with the small bore .22 than any of the other calibre guns put together.

"The proposals are the equivalent of taking four steps back. In addition to the new dangers, they will probably end up shutting down about 98 per cent of all small specialist shops."

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