Euro MPs back stricter gun laws

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The European Parliament has voted to tighten laws on obtaining and possessing firearms.

The age at which a firearm can be bought or owned will be raised to 18, unless it is for hunting or target shooting under adult supervision.

Blank-firing guns that could be converted will also be made illegal.

Earlier this month, a student shot dead eight people at a school in Finland, where gun ownership is among the highest in the world.

EU governments are expected to approve the reforms by the end of the year and the directive is due to come into force in January 2008.

Member states will then have two years to put the changes into practice.

Convertible guns

One of the aims of the legislation is to control the sale of guns over the internet.

British MEP Arlene McCarthy became involved in the reforms when she discovered that almost half the weapons seized by Greater Manchester Police in 2006 had been converted after being imported from countries such as Germany or Lithuania as alarm guns, gas guns or blank-firing guns.

Police say converted handguns are finding their way on to the streets

Twelve-year-old Kamilah Peniston was fatally shot at her home in Manchester while her brother was playing with a converted gun.

A ban on handguns was introduced in the UK after the murders of 16 schoolchildren and their teacher at Dunblane, but that has not stopped convertible guns entering the country.

Better registration

EU member states will also have to sign up to tighter rules on registering firearms.

Details will have to be stored on a national database, listing the type and model of firearm as well as its serial number and the names and addresses of the supplier and buyer.

Five years ago, 17 people died in a school shooting in Erfurt in Eastern Germany.

The German MEP Gisela Kallenbach, who steered the legislation through the parliament, said "a 100% risk-free environment can never be created, but we can try to prevent events such as those in Finland or Germany".

Finnish support

With the third-biggest gun-ownership in the world, Finland has been reluctant to change its laws.

I'm not sure the amendment will be helpful Ville Itala Finnish MEP

But public opinion changed after the shooting at a school in Tuusula.

Finland has already announced it is prepared to increase the age for acquiring firearms to 18, although critics have pointed out that the gunman involved in the school killings had already turned 18.

Pekka-Eric Auvinen carried out his killings armed with a pistol for which he had been given a licence only weeks before.

Because Auvinen's gun was licensed and he was over 18, Finnish MEP Ville Itala is not convinced the new directive would have prevented the murders in his home country.

A former police chief in Finland, Mr Itala says the problem lies not with his country's laws but in their implementation.

"I'm not sure [the directive] will be helpful. From my own point of view, it was a mistake that police hadn't looked into his background," he says.

Ms McCarthy acknowledges that it will always be difficult to stop people getting hold of guns if they are determined.

But she says that anyone with a criminal or a mentally unstable background should face checks.

The new proposals will "control the smuggling of weapons and put in controls for legal weapons", she said.