Meeting of the Parliament 23 April 2015
I was at the committee when the police gave evidence and spoke of their frustration at their inability to address airguns in premises where they suspected that other crimes had been committed. Whether that is domestic abuse, drug crime or any other kind of crime in our community, the inability to do anything about airguns being present in those areas is a concern, so I found the police evidence compelling.
The Scottish firearms consultative panel estimates that there are 500,000 air weapons currently in circulation in Scotland. One of them is in my loft and has been for the past 20 years, and I believe that that is the case with most such weapons. They have been bought for recreational use at some point. My husband and his father were both scout leaders and used the gun to train scouts, but nonetheless the weapon remains in circulation. The amnesty period, and the opportunity for people to hand in weapons that are no longer in use, will make our communities safer.
I am running out of time, but I want to turn to metal dealers, metal theft and what that means to our communities. I represent the Auchengeich area of Moodiesburn and was appalled that, after all the fundraising that had been done by the local community and miners there to make a memorial to the Auchengeich disaster of 1959, the memorial was stolen within a matter of weeks. That was a real emotional blow to the community and one that was felt by everyone from an industrial background in the Lanarkshire area. The memorial was replaced, thanks to a generous donation from a local businessman, but when things affect our built heritage, our memorials, the fabric of our communities and our historic buildings, it has a detrimental effect that cannot be measured—whether it is the theft of lead from a church roof, the destruction of an historic building or indeed the theft of memorials, which is happening more and more.
We must look at the often disproportionate impact on the economy of an area where the value of the metal theft is as nothing to the disruption to infrastructure such as telecommunications or rail and road infrastructure. I am glad that that is being addressed in the bill.
I am not sure whether I have much time left, Presiding Officer.