A man who shot his partner and two other women before killing himself had his guns taken from him by police three years ago amid concerns for the state of his mind, it emerged today.
Minicab-driver Michael Atherton, 42, successfully applied to have his weapons returned after his family had raised concerns that he had threatened to shoot himself in 2008.
Atherton killed his 47-year-old partner, Susan McGoldrick, her sister, Alison Turnbull, 44, and her niece, Tanya Turnbull, 24, before taking his own life on New Year's Day 2012.
Labour MP Grahame Morris said outside the police cordon: "The issue is that in 2008 police responded to a call that there was a domestic argument and Mr Atherton had threatened to self-harm - to shoot himself.
"At the time the police took his firearms from him and he applied to have them returned. Police made an assessment and they were returned to him."
Durham Police confirmed that the weapons were taken from Mr Atherton's house as a precaution, but as he insisted there had been no threat to harm himself, the weapons were returned.
That decision followed national procedure, a force spokesman said.
"It was one person's word against another," he said.
"If there was no grounds for applying for the revocation of a firearms licence the guns would be returned to the firearms licence holder."
Late on New Year's Day police were called to his semi-detached house in Greenside Avenue, Horden, Peterlee, County Durham, and found the bodies of three women and minicab-driver Michael Atherton
As the shooting began, a teenager, understood to be Mrs McGoldrick's 19-year-old daughter, Laura, fled through an upstairs window and raised the alarm.
Mr Morris, whose Easington constituency includes Horden, is calling for a review of firearms legislation in the light of the tragedy which has shocked the former mining village by the North Sea.
He said: "At the moment it is fairly subjective - the police are responsible for carrying out an assessment of whether an individual is a fit and proper person to hold a firearms licence.
"My view is there should be some input from a suitably qualified health care professional.
"Secondly, I also wonder whether it is reasonable to keep firearms in a domestic situation."
Mr Morris said a balance between the rights of shotgun users and the safety of the public needed to be struck.
"Let's not forget, four people lost their lives on New Year's Day."
The killings had echoes of Cumbrian gunman Derrick Bird's 2010 rampage in which he murdered 12 people.
Both Bird and Mr Atherton were minicab drivers known to the police. In Bird's case he was convicted of theft in 1990 but retained his shotgun licence.
Due to the previous contact it had with the family, Durham Police has voluntarily referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
It emerged that Mr Atherton may have been at a traditional Boxing Day dip in nearby Blackhall and appeared in good spirits.
He was regarded as fairly out-going, was well-liked in the area, and had a large number of family and friends.
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) warned against "any knee-jerk reaction" to the tragedy.
The organisation expressed sadness and offered its sympathy to the victims but added: "No conclusions can be drawn from this case until the full facts are known."
One elderly man living in a row of terraced bungalows nearby said: "I knew Sue from her working at the supermarket.
"She was a lovely woman.
"I asked her last week how she was and she shrugged. I didn't think anything about it at the time."
Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman said the Government had no plans to revisit UK gun laws which were "amongst the toughest in the world".
"We are trying to balance the need to protect public safety with the need to make sure those controls are practical and work," he said.
"On this specific case we need to wait for the investigation to conclude."
Ministers were looking at guidance and the way gun laws were implemented following a critical report by the Home Affairs Select Committee, he said.