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Plenary, 17 Jan 2008

17 Jan 2008 · S3 · Plenary

Item of business

Firearms

Aitken, Bill Con Glasgow Watch on SPTV

The cabinet secretary was correct in stating that this is a serious issue that we must treat with the utmost seriousness. Much of what he said today was perfectly acceptable. If he continues to research the matter with his usual crusading zeal, we will congratulate him. However, if he does what he and so many of his other colleagues have done in the past few months, and demonstrates that this is just another device to drive the thin end of the wedge between Westminster and the Scottish Parliament, we will not approve of that or accept it.

Let us examine the situation. Clearly there are problems. Man's relationship with guns has always been an uneasy and dangerous one and although that relationship in Scotland is perhaps not as intimate as it is in the United States and in other jurisdictions, there are problems. Those problems are historical and they are growing, as was brought to our attention by the awful events in Dunblane, which highlighted how weapons can be dangerous, especially in the hands of people who simply should not have them. In that instance, the weapons were licensed, but that was an exception to the rule. As a result of that dreadful incident and the inquiry that was carried out by Lord Cullen, the then Conservative Government legislated the following year, in 1997, and applied the appropriate restrictions. As I recollect, there was unanimous approval in the House of Commons for those measures, although in some parts of the community they were perhaps less popular.

I agree that, despite the fact that the most recent legislation is not of any great antiquity, there must be constant and consistent review of firearms legislation. To that end, I am keen to encourage the cabinet secretary to encourage the Westminster Government to proceed further. However, he must understand that firearms legislation is currently reserved. It might be that such powers will eventually come to Scotland as a result of the views that are taken by the Opposition parties in conjunction with the Scottish Executive. I cannot anticipate whether that will happen, but it might. Until that time, I recommend that the cabinet secretary stay within the ambit of the Scotland Act 1998 and operate accordingly.

What can we do about wider public concerns? We must acknowledge that although we can licence and restrict until we are blue in the face—which is tremendously well intentioned—the people who misuse firearms are not likely to be deterred by licensing requirements or legislation. Such people have shown time and again that they will simply drive a horse and cart through any regulations that we seek to impose.

To some extent, today's debate is a continuation of last week's debate on serious organised crime. Handguns and, in some cases, automatic weapons have been used by gangsters to commit murder. It is clear and simple that that is what happens. The vast majority of the weapons that are used have never been licensed. If members look at the most up-to-date statistics, they will see that of the 600-odd cases in which we were able to convict the person and recover the gun, only a handful of weapons—something like 11—were licensed. That is indicative of the problem.

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Plenary, 17 Jan 2008

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