The widower of the paediatrician responsible for the community care of the survivors of the 1996 Dunblane Primary School shootings has called on Donald Trump’s US Government to take a global lead with tighter gun insurance laws.
Renowned Auchterarder historian Robin Bell, a winner of the Sony Radio Academy Award for Best British Documentary who used to teach at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, has challenged the Trump administration to “take a stand” in the wake of last week’s Parkland school shooting in Florida which left 17 pupils and teachers dead.
Mr Bell and his late wife Eirwen, who died of cancer in 2015, sounded out the possibility with Scotland’s then political leaders in the immediate aftermath of Dunblane.
They successfully persuaded the British Medical Association to tighten procedures for doctors signing off on firearms certificates.
But apart from the “kneejerk reaction” from the then Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth and other politicians to ban the ownership of handguns in Scotland, he believes more still needs to be done to assess whether gun owners are responsible individuals – and he believes the risk assessment approach by insurance companies would be the best way to achieve this – not just in Scotland but also in the USA.
Mr Bell, 73, said: “The top priority for a government is to protect its citizens.
“Two school shootings per week in the USA means that this protection is failing.
“President Trump is right to cite mental health as a factor.
“But there is a much easier way of increasing gun safety.
“Guns are like cars. They can be used for good or evil. You can never eliminate risk, but you can reduce it.
“The law requires each car to be insured. Insurance companies assess risks and set premiums.
“This reduces the number of dangerous people in high-powered cars.
“There is no equivalent protection against dangerous people with multiple high-powered guns.
“Ask yourself: are you in favour of abolishing the requirement for cars to be insured, increasing the risk of accident and eliminating automatic compensation when you are hit?
“If car insurance is a good idea, the same is true of guns.”
Mr Bell noted that guns used in mass shootings are almost always legally owned. Individuals are allowed to build up a private arsenal of semi-automatic weapons.
But he said that if guns had to be insured, insurance companies would set their premiums according to the amount of damage each weapon can do and the number owned by any individual.
He added: “Ordinary people would not be prevented from having ordinary guns.
“There would be no extra government bureaucracy.
“Insurance companies would do the work, just as they do for cars. Your premium pays for their protection.
“Insurance would not completely eliminate gun crime any more than it eliminates car crime.
“But it would eliminate the private arsenals that cause the worst disasters.
“The National Rifle Association, opposed to more ‘gun controls’, would benefit from gun insurance.
“They could negotiate discounts for their members, clearly distancing themselves from irresponsible gun owners.
“Nobody has suggested a more realistic way of reducing gun crime. Insurance is worth a try.”
President Trump was due to hold a “listening session” with victims of the Florida high school massacre on Wednesday.
Students who survived the Valentine’s Day shooting have focused their anger on the president, urging him and other elected officials to do something about gun violence.
US gun laws
At a country-wide level, the Second Amendment in the US Constitution is the well-known part of law enshrining the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.”
Federal laws set out who is exempted from this general right to have a gun.
They restrict the sale of firearms to fugitives, people classed a danger to society and anybody involuntarily committed to a mental institution, and those with certain criminal convictions.
State law governs matters such as whether firearms must be concealed or not.
Federal law requires someone to be at least 21 to buy a handgun from a licensed dealer, but only 18 in most places to buy a so-called “long gun”.
Long guns are firearms with a longer barrel including shotguns and rifles.
States including Maine, Minnesota and Vermont allow teens 14 or 16 years old to buy or purchase long guns without parental consent, with some exceptions.
Only two states – Hawaii and Illinois – have imposed stiffer age restrictions, requiring someone to be at least 21 before they can purchase a long gun.
The younger age for long guns dates back to the 1880s.
According to the Small Arms Survey of 2011, there are an average of 88 guns per 100 people in America.
On average, more than 13,000 people are killed each year in the United States by guns.
