Gun crime in Scotland hits ten-year high...

[spin]

Shotgun and rifle crime has more than doubled in Scotland because police have been so effective in cracking down on handgun smugglers, it emerged yesterday.

Gangs finding it harder to access the smaller weapons are instead arming themselves with shotguns and rifles stolen from licensed holders.

The Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency says that a recent rise in illegal handgun trade led officers to crack down on smugglers. In response, many criminals have been robbing legitimate shotgun owners, in particular focusing their attention on country estates.

New figures show that shotgun and rifle offences are at a ten-year high. Police recorded 130 offences involving shotguns and rifles between April 2008 and March this year, compared with 59 similar incidents over the previous 12 months.

****snip****

The latest figures on firearms offences are likely to fuel renewed calls for the licensing of air weapons in Scotland — a move supported by the SNP Administration. At present, firearms legislation is confined to Westminster. A Scottish government spokesman said: “Of course, air weapons still account for a very high proportion of all firearms offences in Scotland, and that is why it is disappointing the UK Government has so far not agreed to transfer air gun legislation to Scotland, as recommended by the Calman Commission.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6890065.ece

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. hits a ten year high -

That would suggest it has been higher, wouldn't it? Wouldn't that also suggest it has more to do with economic cycle conditions than long-standing gun control legislation?

[spin]

2. I'm surprised that airguns are now a problem.

but I guess an airgun would work fine as long as you didn't have to worry about your victim having a real firearm.

I wonder If they'll ban assault airguns.

[Euromutt]

3. Slight correction to the thread title

The Times article says that "shotgun and rifle offences are at a ten-year high," but notes that overall firearm offenses have declined, particularly because of a reduction in handgun crime. Not intended as a reflection on you, spin, because you've just reported the headline, but the Times sub-editor who drafted that evidently hadn't read the article very closely.

[russ1943]

4. ACTUALLY GUN CRIME IN SCOTLAND IS ....DOWN 17%

I know the original poster didn’t write the headline but clearly it contradicts the information in the article linked. The headline and the title of this thread is “Gun crime in Scotland hits ten-year high..”

The linked article’s fifth paragraph states “overall firearms crimes in Scotland dropped from 1,125 in 2007-08 to 884 this year. ”If, as they claim, firearms crimes DROPPED from the previous year, then how can it also now hit a ten year high?
Maybe if they ignore handguns and only consider shotguns and rifles?
According to:National Statistics Publication for Scotland dated 27 October 2009. A 24 page report of RECORDED CRIMES AND OFFENCES INVOLVING FIREARMS, SCOTLAND, 2008-09. Page 3 “http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/289335/0088522.pdf


"In 2008-09, the Scottish police recorded 949 offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been used, a decrease of 17 per cent from the total of 1,144 recorded in 2007-08". (Table 1)”

There were, as the article states, 59 shotgun and rifle offences in the 2007-08 fiscal year. BUT….that official publication I referenced, notes that in the following year shotgun and rifle offences did go up (not to 130) to 67.
They point out that from year to year shotgun offences went up 34% Rifle offences went down 33%. That is a net increase of NINE total. That publication shows that shotgun and rifle offences 3 years ago (2006) was 68 and two years ago it was 69. The earliest year available in that publication was the 1999-00 fiscal year and there were 60.

Also, it isn’t that air weapons firearms are just now a problem. Air weapons used in firearms offences,in Scotlnd have exceeded the combined total of shotguns rifles and pistol/revolvers for all of the ten years that that publication has statistics available.

Something doesn’t compute here.

[russ1943]

5. BBC article refuting OP

Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Scottish gun crime at 10-year low
Gun crime in Scotland has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, while the number of deaths and injuries from such weapons reached a 30-year low.
Offences involving guns dropped 17% to 949 in 2008-09, compared with 1,144 the previous year, official figures showed.
But police solved fewer gun-related crimes, as the offence clear-up rate fell from 64% to 59%.
Scots ministers welcomed the figures, while using them to again call for gun control to be devolved to Holyrood.
The figures showed the number of offences in which a gun was fired and caused death or injury fell from 212 in 2007-08 to 138 last year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8327821.stm