Keyham families criticise Government for slow response

THE families of the five people killed in the Keyham shootings in 2021 have criticised the Government’s failure to respond within time to a coroner’s calls for gun law reform.

- ROD MINCHIN

The Home Office was given 56 days to reply to a series of recommendations made by Ian Arrow, senior coroner for Plymouth and South Devon.

The Government department has now been granted an extension by Mr Arrow to answer his concerns. He said the 50-year-old Firearms Act was at odds with public safety and the fundamental principle that owning a gun is a privilege and not a right’.

In just eight minutes, Jake Davison, 22, killed his mother Maxine Davison, 51; and then he shot dead three-year-old Sophie Martyn and her father, Lee Martyn, 43; Stephen Washington; 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66. He then turned the weapon on himself as he was confronted by an unarmed police officer on the evening of August 12, 2021 in Keyham, Plymouth.

In a series of reports sent to Home Secretary Suella Braverman, Home Office minister Chris Philp, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, all chief constables in England and Wales, the College of Policing and Lord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice, Mr Arrow raised a series of concerns around the Firearms Act, Home Office guidance provided to police forces applying the Firearms Act legislation, the training offered to police staff assessing licence applications and training given to judges hearing licence appeals.