"a cheap throw away election promise by Tony Blair."

Just a moment - wasn't it the Conservative government who banned our pistols ? and who banned Self-loading full-bore rifles? Who put Shotguns onto the current regime?

All the Labour party did was refuse to enact a small part of the 1997 Firearms (Amendment) Act which might have kept a small part of .22 pistol shooting going under extremely onerous conditions.

I believe it's best to place blame where it's due, however much we might dislike the current government.