Sheridan hails survey claim that 80 per cent would back airgun ban

FOUR out of five responses to a consultation on airguns backed a ban on the weapons, it was revealed today.

Solidarity MSP Tommy Sheridan published the results of the exercise designed to gauge opinion on his proposed bill in the Scottish Parliament to outlaw airguns except for sporting or pest control purposes.

There were a total of 184 responses from organisations and individuals and 149 - or 81 per cent - indicated general support for the proposal, while 35 were opposed to the legislation.

Mr Sheridan said the response was "heartening" and that it backed up a previous Solidarity-commissioned poll that showed 82 per cent for the ban. He said: "Of course it is now too late to pass the bill in this parliament, however we have drafted the bill, done the consultation and I promise that Solidarity will introduce the bill as a priority in the new parliament. In the meantime I ask all electors to challenge the parties and the candidates where they stand on this issue. This is an issue whose time has come and we need to ban airguns before any more children die."