Christopher Graffius
The Whitehaven Shootings
Christopher Graffius
Christopher Graffius has been the Director of Communications for BASC since 2001; prior to that he worked for eighteen years in and around politics with posts in the British Council, as a political press officer, the manager for a Commons whips office, as a lobbyist and campaigner.
He is the author of a guide to the election of 1997 and a university course on political campaigning. Formerly a keen follower of the beagles and minkhounds when he lived in the South, he writes and lectures on politics whenever his shooting and fishing in North Wales leaves him time.
It began as an ordinary Wednesday with the normal round of work going ahead steadily in BASC’s new Communications Centre. At 11 o’clock a sharp eyed member of staff had picked up from the Internet that there had been a shooting and one fatality in Whitehaven. The TV was reporting a gunman on the loose and a police warning to stay inside. We had a potential Single Incident Mass Killing (SIMK) in progress.
In a decade as Director of Communications at BASC the threat of a SIMK has always been in the background. My original interview for the job included a discussion of the fallout for shooting from the tragedy at Dunblane – my own father, a keen pistol shot had never taken them out again after the killing of sixteen five year olds and their teacher. SIMK’s have the potential to change shooting sports out of all recognition. Over the past decade we’d discussed it, planned for it and trained for it, but you never know if the preparations you’ve made are enough. The Head of Press put the crisis management plan on my desk and we went into action.
The first reaction, as the full horror of what was happening became clear, is sympathy with the victims and their families. The pictures of covered bodies lying in the road are shocking. One can only imagine the awfulness for their friends and relations – let alone the wider impact on the community. As someone who shoots there’s a feeling of incredulity. British shooting is remarkably safe, with injuries – let alone deaths – far below almost every other sport. From the moment you start shooting it’s drummed into you: “Never, never let your gun, pointed be at anyone…” You have to get your head around the fact that you are dealing with someone who has become deranged, that the shootings are murders and that the perpetrator is a mass murderer.
Reticence, sympathy, respect are all required, but so is sensible press relations. In the era of twenty-four hour rolling news we knew that within minutes Duke Street in Whitehaven would be filling up with camera crews. The mass media from TV, to the Internet would be hungry for comment and would be discussing implications within a few hours. Nothing we can do can bring the dead back, but we have a duty to ensure that the press and public are properly informed, and that the interests of legitimate shooting sports are not damaged by prejudice and ignorance.
We were fortunate that Bill Harriman – BASC’s Director of Firearms and an adviser to both government and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) – was already in London. I asked him to go direct to the TV and radio studios on Millbank near the Commons. His colleague, Mike Eveleigh – a former police officer and expert on the licensing system, was on holiday near Canterbury. One call and he was on his way to London. In the North West, Steve Woodhall, a former soldier and BASC’s regional officer – went into Whitehaven.
In the event the media moved onto licensing issues within minutes of the murderer’s body being found and we had people on the spot to give interviews and answer their questions. To ensure that the press got their facts right we emailed every outlet with BASC’s Journalists’ Guide to Shooting which sets out the licensing system in detail. We focused in on the key national media outlets covering every major bulletin on the BBC, ITN, Channel 4 and Sky. In the regions our offices focused on responding to local radio and TV. Over the first twenty-four hours BASC staff had covered more than sixty different interviews many of which were re-broadcast as the situation developed.
It was notable that shooting’s voice was well represented. The anti-firearms lobby failed to give an interview until the afternoon of the second day. The line taken by BASC’s spokesmen was that there should be no knee jerk legislative response. It was important to wait until the facts were known and that it is impossible to legislate for the deranged. We informed government and opposition of the line we were taking. It’s impossible to tell how influential this was but we were delighted when leading politicians including the Home Secretary and Prime Minister took the same line.
SIMKs don’t end after forty eight hours, or even after the dead have been buried. After the press phase we have moved to the political and that will be far more difficult to manage. The press have one objective: to speedily produce novel and relevant copy or film, in politics there will be many competing agendas. Ensuring that the law remains proportionate and at the same time protects public safety and maintains the benefits of shooting to the rural economy will be tricky. There are at least three reviews currently in progress – including a Home Office review of firearms legislation. A debate is due in the Commons in early July. We may be considering alternatives for changes in the law well into 2011.
Whatever happens, BASC will be at the centre of the debate.
Christopher Graffius
Director of Communications for the BASC