Clause 26 - Age limits for purchase etc. of air weapons
Violent Crime Reduction Bill
10:30 am
Stewart Hosie (Dundee East, Scottish National Party)
The hon. Gentleman makes the valid point that proportionality should be taken into account, but England had 1,195 attempted murders and Scotland nowhere near 10 per cent. of that number over the same period, and England had 68 firearm murders but Scotland only one. Proportionality does not enter either equation. England has a specific difficulty with real firearm crime, and the Government are right to address it. Scotland's problem is primarily air weapon crime, and I shall explain why in a few moments.
I shall put the figures into context. There have been fewer firearm murders in Scotland in 10 years than there were in England in a single year. The statistics for crimes involving handguns, mentioned last week, are even more startling. England had 5,123 handgun crimes, including 35 murders, compared with 29 handgun crimes and no murders in Scotland over the same period. However, although Scotland had fewer than 200 crimes associated with identified firearms, it had 415 air weapon crimes—200 per cent. more.