Police too easy with gun licences: security research council

The police are too quick to hand out gun licences and do not check applications on the basis of potential misuse because they don’t have enough information, according to a report by the national security research council.


In addition, the regulation of gun licences has a low priority with both justice minister Ivo Opstelten and police chiefs, the report says.
It recommends that people applying for a gun licence be required to prove they are psychologically suitable to own a gun, either with a doctor’s statement or a test.
The report comes in the wake of April’s shooting at a shopping centre in Alphen aan den Rijn. Tristan van der Vlis shot dead six people before turning a gun on himself.
Van der Vlis had a licence to own five weapons even though he had a history of mental illness and had made several suicide attempts.

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