The widow of a farmer who killed himself with his legally held shotgun has called for new laws forcing GPs to alert police when firearm owners suffer a mental health crisis.

Alan Mann, 63, who had lived with anxiety and depression for years, shot himself on February 1 last year.

A marker on his GP medical notes showed he was a licence holder but despite a serious deteriorated in his mental health, repeated suicidal thoughts and urgent attempts to get help by his wife Elisabeth, no referral was made to police firearms licensing officers.

She instructed her sister to inform police of the situation but was told officers would not attend unless Mr Mann left the house. Control room staff didn’t inform the relevant team.

At her husband’s inquest, Mrs Mann complained warnings about his spiralling condition were not taken seriously enough.

She said at one point she told officials bluntly: ‘We have hours here, not days. We are desperate.’

Shortly afterwards, Mr Mann, a mushroom farmer from Flixton, near Bungay in Norfolk, was found dead from a gunshot wound to his head, close to a Men's Shed community project he had been attending for support.

Assistant coroner Robin Weyell, who recorded a conclusion of suicide following the hearing at Norfolk Coroner’s Court, noted doctors are guided by General Medical Council advice which allows disclosure where safety is at risk but there is no statutory duty requiring them to report concerns.

He said: ‘At no point did the GP tell police but did this contribute to his death? My opinion is no.’

But he added: ‘I ask that the GP reflect on the GMC guidance again.’

Speaking this week, florist Mrs Mann called for an overhaul of the system, to be known as Alan’s Law.

She said: ‘It should be law that police are informed and firearms removed when a person is spiralling like Alan was.

‘Dr Sally Erskine didn’t follow guidance to tell Alan to give up his licence, inform other practitioners he had a gun or inform police he was suicidal. I believe it if was law, she would have done so.’

Mr Mann, who had held a shotgun certificate since he was a teenager after growing up on a farm, was found with a self-inflicted shotgun wound on February 1 last year.

As well as his long struggle with depression and anxiety, he also had ME, the inquest heard last month.

In the days before his death, he repeatedly begged for help, saying in one call to crisis services that he didn’t want to wake up anymore. A transcript revealed he was advised to listen to sport on the radio and go back to his GP.

In another call, he said: ‘How unwell do I have to be [to get help]?’

Mrs Mann called mental health staff on January 29 to say she feared her husband might act on his suicidal thoughts but she didn’t want to ask him where he kept the keys to his gun cabinet as it might ‘put the idea in his head’.

The florist also arranged for her sister to contact police about her husband’s state of mind and the fact he held a shotgun.

But her sister was told officers wouldn’t attend unless there was a good reason and control staff didn’t pass on the concerns to licensing officers. Mr Mann shot himself two days later.

Dr Erskine, who has since left Harleston Medical Practice, told the inquest in Norwich that she saw Mr Mann on January 27 last year.

Although he mentioned suicidal thoughts, she believed an overdose would be his most likely way of attempting suicide as he tried that previously.

‘That was what I was most concerned about, so we made a plan for his wife to look after all the medication,’ she said.

Asked if she should have raised concerns with Norfolk Constabulary, she added: ‘In retrospect, on the 27th, I could have done.’

Dr Erskine said her ‘threshold’ for alerting police would be lower in future.

Darrell Skuse, a firearms licensing manager for Norfolk Constabulary, said someone with depression or anxiety was not automatically prohibited from owning a weapon if their condition was stable.

‘Just because you have a history of mental illness, which is extraordinarily common, does not mean you cannot enjoy shooting as a sport,’ he said.

However, he told Mr Weyell that if officers were ‘made aware that a person in crisis held a gun, we would act… that day’.

The inquest also heard that Mr Mann was repeatedly refused urgent NHS care because he had received some private support.

The coroner told the hearing there was insufficient evidence to conclude that Mr Mann’s death was a direct result of police not being told about his concerning state of mind.

‘One of the things I have to grapple with is whether an omission to tell police about the gun contributed to his death,’ he said.

‘I cannot and will not find a causative link. What is causative is a terrible disease from which he had suffered for a very long time.’

Speaking after the hearing, Mrs Mann said: ‘What is the point of having a firearm marker on medical notes if it is not acted on and the police are not informed and remove a gun when a person is clearly in mental health crisis? Surely that's the very reason the marker is there.

‘I have no doubt that, given the high number of license holders in Norfolk, there are other families in this situation right now and that is both terrifying and heart-breaking.

‘Make the guidance for GPs to inform police statutory law. That way it cannot be ignored or misinterpreted and lives will be saved.’

A government spokeswoman said: 'Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy, and our thoughts are with Mrs Mann and her family.

‘If and when the Coroner sends us the Preventing Future Deaths report, we will give the findings very careful consideration.’

A spokeswoman for Harleston Medical Practice and Dr Erskine said: 'They are unable to comment on individual cases.'

Norfolk Police and the General Medical Council were also contacted for comments. 

* For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123, visit samaritans.org or visit https://www.thecalmzone.net/get-support