Airgun Questions Again?

After the legislation in Scotland being passed last year and brought into force this year it seems Airguns and laws are now being discussed in Westminster.

You have been able to apply for an Airgun license in Scotland since the 1st of July 2016, and due to this police Scotland has been backed up to the “hilt” with processing with many applications presumably not being able to be completed before the 31st of December when the law comes into force. The Countryside Alliance has called the whole process a “Farce” and believe that there was inadequate campaigning advising people of the legislation and that police Scotland prematurely brought in an airgun amnesty and that parliament should not go ahead with talks in regards to rolling out the legislation to the rest of the UK.

Airgun licensing has been in force for a number of years already in Northern Ireland and the Scotlands decision to bring in the legislation had been on the cards for a while. The decisions were taken by the Scottish government in the wake of a number of airgun related offences had been repeatedly happening and with the injury of a toddler ending in a fatality. the controversial decision caused widespread debate within the shooting community over the last two years and is still in the implementation stages, however, it is very clear there is a lack of up take in regards to license applications worrying that many of the airguns  owned are now being put into the “black market”.

Ministers discussing the legislation proposal to be widened throughout the rest of the UK will be looking at how things pan out in Scotland before making a decision but it seems that airgunners nationwide are and will be affected by legislation of some form in the future even though there has been a reduction in airgun related offences.

The amnesty in Scotland held by police Scotland this year saw thousands of airguns being handed in to police stations for destruction but it is believed that that was only a fraction of the number thats out there. I know from my own personal research on social media that most Airgunner do not only have just one airgun some airgunners have more than two or three air weapons. Some air weapons out there are replicas of larger calibre assault rifles and hand guns that look like the real thing.

The hope of the government in regards to legislating air guns is to regulate their usage and control better their availability but a lot in the sport believe it is just more money making Bureaucracy for the governement.

For now it is just Parliamentary discussion so Air Gunners will have to see how this all turns out but again another blow for the air gun sports.