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Police and Justice Bill

I understand now the basis on which the noble Lord makes his assessment. In dealing with firearms we are looking at murder or deaths created by the use of a firearm, and that part has fallen. Noble Lords will know that a very large percentage of unlawful killings, be they murder or manslaughter, are committed by people known to the victim. This year, for instance, we have had 100 deaths occasioned by domestic violence, the killing by one partner of another, while the year before there were 120. That issue is unrelated to the use of firearms. Deaths occurring from firearms have, by the grace of God, gone down by 30 per cent.