Scotland to introduce airgun licensing law

[saddler]

Stage 1 Report of the Air Weapons and Licensing (S) Bill published

I am writing to inform you that the Local Government and Regeneration Committee of the Scottish Parliament has today, Monday 23 March 2015, published its Stage 1 Report on the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Bill.

For a summary of the Committee’s findings and recommendations on the Bill, please see the Committee’s news release here: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/newsa ... 87991.aspx

For a copy of the Committee’s full report, see the report page here:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parli ... 88036.aspx (Please note the full report runs to 90 pages in total and the PFD version is 2.2MB in size. There is also a HTML version available to print)

For further updates please follow us on Twitter: @SP_LocalGovt

Timing for the Stage 1 debate on the Bill

On Wednesday 18 March the Parliament approved a motion to extend the Stage 1 deadline for this Bill to Friday 24 April 2015. This means the Stage 1 debate must take place on or before that date. The Parliament will set an exact date for the Stage 1 debate in due course, and this is a matter for the Parliamentary Bureau to propose by way of a motion to the Parliament. Such a motion is usually agreed about 1 week in advance of the debate. As soon as the Parliament agrees a date for the Stage 1 debate, you will be informed via email.

You may wish to note that the Parliament will be in recess from Friday 3 April to Sunday 19 April for the Easter Recess period. See the recess dates section of the website for more information.

What happened after Stage 1

If the Bill is passed at Stage 1, it then moves on to Stage 2 consideration (the amendment stage). MSPs may begin lodging amendments to the Bill as soon as it passes Stage 1. However, Standing Orders require a minimum of 12 parliamentary sitting days between the end of Stage 1 and the day on which a Committee can begin considering amendmnets at Stage 2. A sitting day is any day when the Office of the Clerk is open but not when the Parliament is in recess or dissolved. The Office of the Clerk is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public & priviliged holidays.

You will be emailed to inform you of the dates for Stage 2 proceedings when they become known.

Regards
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S*** W*****
Assistant Clerk
Local Government and Regeneration Committee

[Individual]

It must be getting close for Salmond wheeling out Sean Connery!

Now that would be funny - Sean has a history with air pistols.....

[Fedaykin]

Ah so lets move forward with a bill despite crimes with Air Guns being at an all time low and 90% of the respondents of the public consultation saying no and the police stating it will be expensive and almost unworkable!

It gets even better, read this article:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/t ... -1-3725815

This particular gem of a paragraph stuck out!

MSPs on the committee have also called on the Scottish Government to consider if it would be feasible for air weapons to have “some form of identifier mark” which would link each weapon to its owner, and could therefore help the police identify those responsible for any crimes committed with the guns.

Considering we have no clear picture of how many Air guns are in Scotland many of which lack any kind of serial number and unlike a firearm lacking any kind of mechanical feature that would make it possible to match a pellet to rifle plus said marking requires the owner to offer it up I am unclear how they hope to achieve that.

Politically motivated hogwash by the SNP to appease their lefty membership, anybody who participates in shooting sports who votes SNP needs their head examined!

[saddler]

Any shooter voting SNP should be checked for mental incapacity, have their certificate(s) revoked and kept away from sharp objects. ..& not be allowed to operate heavy machinery or carry out kitten juggling in a built up area after the hours of darkness.

[Fedaykin]

The SNP are hell bent on introducing this regardless of what anybody says, I suppose those of us who own a non FAC air rifle will have to wait and see how onerous it is. If it is too much of a pain then there is no way I am handing in my beloved HW97K .22 air rifle to be cut up. The first rifle I ever owned purchased in Brighton 16 years ago, I will send it South of the border to the care of an RFD friend not to be sold but rather held in case I move back to England or this insane concept of a bill is repealed. What makes me even more angry is how they have lumped it in with a whole load of disparate items.

You will now have the absurd situation of people coming up from England to go Stag hunting with S1 rifles in calibers like 7mm rem mag but needing a visitors permit if they decide to bring a cheap break barrel sub 12ft/lb for some bunny bashing.

[saddler]

My airguns all got lost at sea on a fishing trip.
Very sad....

[Fedaykin]

SNP will be onto how many guns you hold next, it will be 1 RF, 1CF and a Shotgun. They will wheel out the same old excuse "I don't understand why anybody needs more than one..."

The answers "But I am a collector of historic service rifles, or I shoot different target shooting disciplines, or I hunt different types of prey species"...all will fall on deaf ears! Golfists have different clubs depending on what they are doing...

Unfortunately this is an area that Police Scotland will give much happy support, even had a chat with a police lady making a security visit who said you guessed it...:

"I don't understand why anybody needs more than one..."

[Fedaykin]

My airguns all got lost at sea on a fishing trip.
Very sad....

Got to be careful of those fish...

[knewmans]

Unfortunately this is an area that Police Scotland will give much happy support, even had a chat with a police lady making a security visit who said you guessed it...:

"I don't understand why anybody needs more than one..."

Bet she's got more than 1 pair of shoes although I can't imagine why

[Chuck]

It allows them to avoid the real problems - just playing to the gullible fools who vote for them. As for the police woman - there's always one.

I wonder how many kids she has? Pity she is too lazy to find out WHY people need more than one.