COUNSEL representing the families of the victims of the Dunblane massacre yesterday blamed the Central Scotland Police force for failing to prevent the tragedy.

Mr Colin Campbell QC severely criticised the force's firearms department and senior officers, saying that in dealing with Thomas Hamilton's gun licence applications they had failed in their duty to investigate him properly and assess his suitability to possess weapons.

In his closing submission to Lord Cullen's inquiry into the shootings, Mr Campbell said there had been abundant good reasons for revoking or refusing Hamilton's licence, but these had been ignored. ``But for the firearms department's culpable failure to remove his weapons, this terrible tragedy would not have occurred.''

A recommendation from a detective, outwith the department, that Hamilton should not have guns had been rejected. A woman police constable who visited Hamilton in response to a renewal application had felt very uneasy about him but had been told by a senior officer to forget about it.

The bulk of what was now known to the inquiry about Hamilton's past had been known to police before the tragedy, Mr Campbell said. But previous incidents had been considered in isolation and then forgotten or ignored when further incidents arose.

It was remarkable that the then Deputy Chief Constable, Mr Douglas McMurdo, had told the inquiry there had been no contra-indicators to Hamilton's applications for licence renewals, said Mr Campbell.

This spoke volumes about the ethos prevalent in the firearms department, a culture which discouraged officers from acting on their instincts without hard facts such as a criminal conviction. In the absence of incontrovertible information, the force would not even begin to exercise the discretion entrusted to it by Parliament in the interests of public safety.

``In my submission, this was a dereliction of duty of the highest order and can only be the result of a slack and irresponsible culture built up over a number of years.''

The system of firearms control in the Central Scotland force had been regarded as, and operated as, only an administrative matter with no recognition of the task entrusted by Parliament to investigate and assess the personal suitability of each applicant before entrusting them with weapons.

``Organisations are occasionally criticised for failing to act in a proactive manner. Only to react to events is often considered wholly inadequate. The firearms department were clearly not proactive, but not even reactive to events. Rather they were inactive, despite overwhelming evidence that positive action was required.''

Ms Laura Dunlop, another member of the families' legal team, dismissed a suggestion by gun supporters that society was to blame for the massacre.

``It has been suggested by at least one shooting group, that society has some responsibility for what occurred because of the way it treated Hamilton. In my submission, that does not stand up to scrutiny.''

The urge of parents to protect their children was utterly fundamental, she said. Such restrictions as had been placed on Hamilton's activities had been imposed because he had been ``rightly perceived as a threat to children''. Ms Dunlop added: ``Society should have interfered more with his sinister activities, not less.''

Mr James Taylor, lawyer for Central Scotland Police, defended the force as he began his final submission, which he will continue today.

Apart from two incidents at summer camps run by Hamilton, he said, the inquiry had heard no evidence of violent behaviour prior to the shootings.

There was nothing in the evidence given by psychiatrists to suggest that police in any way failed to take account of any factors which, had they done so, might have changed their assessment of his suitability to hold firearms.

There was no evidence that Hamilton had been bottling up ``some ferocious instinct'', nor had any evidence emerged which showed police should have been able to diagnose him as a paedophile, said Mr Taylor.

Earlier, Mr Andrew Gibb, lawyer for teachers at the school, endorsed Mr Campbell's comments about defects in the system within the Central Scotland force, but added that there were also problems higher up: Home Office guidelines were not helpful as they lacked clarity.

He added that it was ``the earnest hope'' of the teaching staff that there would be a complete ban on private ownership of possession of handguns.

The inquiry continues.