Clause 42 - Possession of air weapon or imitation firearm in public place
Anti-social Behaviour Bill
9:45 am
Mr Vernon Coaker (Gedling, Labour)
Thank you, Mr. O'Brien, for that clarification. My remarks might be very general, as have been those of other Committee members in this interesting debate.
The issues raised by the amendments relate to clarification of the intentions of the clause and, as the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Mrs. Brooke) said, to whether it needs to be strengthened. I have brought a dossier with me from the Evening Post in Nottingham. That newspaper also covers the constituencies of my hon. Friends the Members for Erewash (Liz Blackman) and for Nottingham, East (Mr. Heppell). It has been campaigning, along with many of us, for the law to be improved by tightening and strengthening it.
I have showed the dossier to the Minister, so he knows that it contains examples of fire crews who go out to tackle fires being shot at with pellets. Nobody is going to say anything other than that that is deplorable, but the question for the Committee is whether the clause, and the amendments to it, will help to tackle that problem. The honest answer is that it strengthens the law and sends out a stronger message that that will not be tolerated. However, the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire was right when he said that it is not about banning the weapons; it is about tightening the controls on them. Whether we accept the amendments or not, the issue hangs on whether the police, or those who are responsible, operate proactive policing in enforcing the law when they stop somebody who has an airgun or imitation gun. They have to demonstrate what ''lawful authority'' and ''reasonable excuse'' really mean. It is a difficult but fundamental issue. The police need to protect us by rigorously interpreting that power. Clause 42, for all its good intentions and its toughening of the law, will not achieve what we want unless it is accompanied by that rigorous enforcement and that proactive interpretation.