News In Focus
16 July 2007
UK government sympathetic to airgun ban
The UK government would be willing to consider an airgun ban, according to the Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.
Mr MacAskill raised the matter with the UK Justice Minister Jack Straw at a meeting last week, as it is only Westminster that has the power to regulate firearms. The SNP had pledged to raise the issue with UK ministers within 100 days of coming to power.
Campaigners have been calling for an airgun ban ever since two-year-old Andrew Morton died after being shot by an airgun in Glasgow two years ago. Since 1999, three people have been killed and more than 1,100 people injured by airguns in Scotland.
Mr MacAskill said options for a way forward had been discussed with Mr Straw and these received a sympathetic response. New laws that come into effect later this year will mean that airguns can only be sold by registered dealers who have been approved by the police. The legal age for owning an airgun will increase from 17 to 18 and people will not be able to buy them from mail order or online.
However, campaigners and many Labour and SNP politicians believe the laws do not go far enough.
Mr MacAskill added that the Scottish government thought that additional firearms legislation was needed to deal with the problem in Scotland.