South Ayrshire Council is to support a request from West Dunbartonshire Council to back its concerns about the dangers caused by airguns.

However it stopped short of giving support to a bid to have the Scottish Parliament and Westminster Government take action to BAN airguns.

A letter to South Ayrshire Council from West Dunbartonshire Council had explained that West Dunbartonshire Council had approved a motion expressing condolences to the family of a two-year-old boy who died after sustaining injuries from an airgun attack, and seeking the support of all Scottish local authorities, MSPs and MPs.

The motion welcomed new rules introduced by the Scottish Government in April, 2005, governing the possession, sale and manufacturing of air weapons with a self-contained gas cartridge (SCGC). The new rules ensure that anyone who owns a SCGC airgun will have to possess a firearms certificate by April 30 - or they could face between five and 10 years in prison.

The West Dunbartonshire motion also supported the provisions in the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 which strengthened existing legislation on firearms control by making it an offence to possess an airgun in a public place without reasonable excuse and raising the minimum age for airgun ownership from 14 to 17.

And it expressed a belief that it was completely unacceptable that airguns were being used to intimidate members of the public - young and old - adding to the fear of crime in our communities.

South Ayrshire Council unanimously decided to support the West Dunbartonshire motion in part - excluding, however, a call for a complete ban on the non-commercial use of airguns in Scotland, and not supporting West Dunbartonshire's request to the Scottish Parliament and Westminster Governments asking that they take necessary action to ban airguns.

Said Councillor Andy Hill, Leader of South Ayrshire Council: "Quite clearly the meeting acknowledged that there is a need to recognise the steps taken by the Scottish to exercise control over the sale of firearms of any nature. We should certainly support the new legislation. However the meeting disagreed with the idea of any blanket ban, acknowledging there are practical uses such as controlling vermin, especially in rural areas, that have to be taken into consideration."

November 2005