Prosper murders expose lack of control over guns

The triple murder of a family by a teenager who wanted to commit a mass school shooting exposed a lack of "proper control" over who can buy a gun, a police and crime commissioner (PCC) has said.

Nicholas Prosper, 19, murdered his mother, sister and brother in their home in Luton in September with a shotgun bought the day before using a fake licence.

Bedfordshires Labour PCC John Tizard said the case exposed weaknesses in the current law, a sentiment shared by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

She said these were "deep and longstanding" and that the Home Office was "urgently looking at how we can tighten these controls".

Prosper was jailed for life on Wednesday and will serve a minimum of 49 years for murdering his mum Juliana Falcon, 48, his younger brother Kyle, 16, and 13-year-old sister Giselle at their flat in Marsh Farm in the early hours of 13 September.

He was apprehended by police before he could carry out a mass shooting at his old school, St Josephs Catholic Primary School, where he wanted to kill children and teachers, before killing himself.

The sentencing judge said he wanted to "unleash disaster" upon Luton.

He had a fascination with mass shooters, idolising the perpetrator of the 2012 Sandy Hook killings in the United States, and his internet history included him watching extremely violent content.

Currently to own or purchase a shotgun or ammunition a person would need a firearms certificate.

In August 2024, Prosper tried and failed in his first attempt to buy a gun.

However, later that month he contacted another seller on a legal gun sales site, paying £650 plus £30 petrol money to the man for a shotgun and 100 cartridges.

He had researched the logos, signatures and even the type of paper licences were printed on to dupe the seller, who committed no offence.

Private gun sellers need to inform police of any sale, and the person who sold the shotgun to Prosper did this on 12 September.

Yet because this was done out-of-hours on the day before the killings, there was no opportunity for anyone to realise the gun had been sold to someone who was not a legitimate licence holder.

Tizard said: "Clearly, people need shotguns for very legitimate reasons, but at the moment if youve got a gun [and] you want to sell it to me all I have to do is show you a certificate, which may be genuine or I may have faked and you are able to sell it to me and that cant be right," he added.

He said he had written to Cooper and said a change to legislation appears "common sense".

Tizard said he wanted to see two changes made, one being the creation of a national firearms licence holder database.

"The second is to introduce measures that when an individual sells a gun or exchanges a gun with a third party not only should they have to see a certificate, but they need to have clearance from the police, who are the licensing authority for firearms, that the person purchasing has a legitimate right to purchase, has a legitimate certificate and can prove identity and that certificate to the vendor," he said.

Cooper said what the case showed was "senseless killings fuelled purely by a disturbing fixation with violence and obsessive brutality".

She added: "This terrible case has exposed deep and longstanding weaknesses in private firearms sales, and we are urgently looking at how we can tighten these controls.

"But it also shows an urgent need to look at the very disturbing way some young people are becoming fixated with extreme violent material online and the real dangers to our communities as a result.

"From tech companies to law enforcement to schools, and right across society, stronger recognition of the nature of this threat is needed, and stronger action to prevent this kind of terrible violence.

"This government will not shy away from taking the actions that are needed to keep communities safe."

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