Dunblane widower urges gun insurance law action

Trump’s government challenged to ‘take a stance’

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 was a winner of the Sony Radio Academy Award for best British documentary and used to teach at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

He has challenged the Trump administration to “take a stand” in the wake of last week’s Parkland school shooting in Florida which left 17 dead.

Mr Bell and his late wife Eirwen, who died of cancer in 2015, sounded out the possibility of gun insurance laws with Scotland’s 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 “knee-jerk 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.

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 US.

Mr Bell, 73, said: “The top priority for a government is to protect its citizens.

“Two school shootings per week in the US 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.”

Picture: Getty Images. Tributes laid to the 17 people killed last week in the second-deadliest shooting at a US public school.

Historian Robin Bell.