Firearms injury toll jumps by a quarter

Published on Wednesday 24 October 2007 01:12

THE number of injuries caused by firearms in Scotland rose by more than a quarter last year, new figures published yesterday showed.

Air guns accounted for more than half of these injuries, the figures revealed.

Kenny MacAskill, the justice secretary, said the figures highlighted the need for new laws to fight the "cancer" of gun crime.

Yesterday's annual firearms figures showed guns killed eight people last year, the same death toll as in each of the previous two years. But the number of people injured went up by 26 per cent, from 189 to 239.

Air weapons accounted for 143 of these cases, and also accounted for more than half of all firearms offences - 675 out of 1,245.

Officials said changes in the way gun crimes are recorded could have led to an apparent rise in air-gun crime and cases of "reckless conduct with a firearm". Police previously excluded air-gun incidents where no injury or damage was caused, but these were included for the first time last year.

Firearms law is a Westminster responsibility, but Scottish ministers want it devolved to Holyrood, and have suggested a consolidated Firearms Act to take account of Scotland's needs.

Mr MacAskill said: "As a country, we must be concerned that firearms casualties rose by a quarter last year, one in three of them children, and cases of attempted murder involving firearms were almost three times that of a decade ago. We supported previous reforms brought in by the UK parliament, including the recent tightening of air weapon sales, but no responsible government can look at these figures and say the job is done.

"While knife crime remains more prevalent in Scotland - and we will not let up on our work to tackle that - we must and will not allow gun crime to get a grip on any of our communities."