New gun law should give doctors access to national weapons register

A new gun law currently being debated in the lower house should give doctors access to the country’s central weapons register. This would enable them to check whether their patients hold a firearms licence. At present applicants for a license need to undergo a health check but it is at doctors’ own discretion whether an applicant must undergo a psychological evaluation as well.

The new law should also contain a list of illnesses that preclude gun ownership. It recently emerged that the gunman who killed 14 people and injured 25 at the Prague Faculty of Arts had been treated for mental problems.