Scotland demands airgun powers

The Scottish Government has again pressed to be given the power to set airgun legislation, despite statistics showing that crimes involving airguns in Scotland are at their lowest level for a decade.

The new figures, published last week by Scotland?s chief statistician, show that the number of offences involving airguns dropped from 427 in 2009/10 to 233 in 2010/11. Since 2006/07, airgun offences have declined by 66 per cent.

However, Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said: ?While the overall number of air weapon offences has dropped again this year, the figure of 233 offences remains too high.

?We have pressed the UK Government repeatedly to let us take action on air weapons, and it is encouraging that measures are now underway to transfer responsibility for air weapons to the Scottish Parliament.

?We either need action at a UK-wide level, or the UK Government needs to agree to devolve the current complex and piecemeal firearms legislation wholesale, to ensure that the law is better able to protect Scottish communities.?

The rest of this article appears in the 2nd November issue of Shooting Times.

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