British police forces have been failing the public because they aren’t applying gun licensing laws consistently, according to a report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC). Yet police spin doctors convinced the media to blame the public for their failings. HMIC’s decision to publicise its report into police firearms licensing departments by talking about “imminent gun massacres” has buried criticisms of the police in the media – and with it, potential to find a sensible consensus on new firearms licensing laws. The top lines from the original press release that resonated the most with the press are the hysterics about “future” gun massacres and the bizarre, misleading assertions that licensed firearms owners in Britain are subject to less vetting than bus drivers, which the chief executive of the National Rifle Association (UK) described as “alarmist”. These are clearly well-chosen lines from spin doctors who know how to catch the attention