Statistical Bulletin - Criminal Justice Series

Statistical Bulletin - Criminal Justice Series

Firearm Certificates Statistics, Scotland, 1997

1.   Introduction

1.1   This bulletin presents information for the years 1988 to 1997 on the issue of firearm and shot gun certificates under the Firearms Act 1968 (as amended). A firearm or shot gun certificate permits the holder to possess one or more weapons, thus changes in the number of certificates will not necessarily reflect changes in the number of weapons legally held. The bulletin also contains information on European Community (EC) and non-EC Visitors’ Permits and European Firearm Passes which were first introduced in 1994 (see Note 10 of Annex). Detailed tables can be found in the Appendix and further details of the Firearms Act 1968 (“the 1968 Act”), the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 (“the 1988 Act”) and the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 (“the 1997 Act”) are provided in the Annex of this bulletin.

Statistics on the number of crimes and offences involving the alleged use of a firearm in 1996 were published in The Scottish Office bulletin “Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland 1996” in September 1997. The corresponding figures for 1997 will be published in a bulletin later in the year.

Chart 1   Firearm and shot gun certificates on issue at 31 December, Scotland, 1988-97

2. Summary

The figures detailed in this bulletin cover the period in which changes to the firearms legislation were made prohibiting the possession of large calibre handguns. In addition, there was a hand-in period between 1 July and 30 September 1997 for the surrender of large calibre handguns. (For further details please refer to Note 6 of the Annex).

There were 31,094 firearm certificates on issue at the end of 1997, 959 fewer than the previous year.
The total number of applications for a new firearm certificate was 1,304 in 1997 compared with 1,622 in 1996, a decrease of 318 applications. There were 2,069 cancellations (up from 1,711 in 1996) and 80 revocations of firearm certificates in 1997. The increase in the number of cancellations is largely due to the hand-in of large calibre handguns between 1 July and 30 September 1997.
As at December 1997, there were 63,215 shot gun certificates on issue, compared with 66,185 in 1996.
The number of applications for a new shot gun certificate was 1,761 in 1997, 306 less than the number recorded in 1996. There were 159 revocations of shot gun certificates in 1997; similar to the number recorded in 1996 (157).
There were 313 registered firearm dealers in Scotland in 1997, 6 fewer than the 1996 figure of 319.
The number of applications for Visitors' Permits from both EC and non-EC residents in 1997 totalled 4,152 for firearms and 6,449 for shot guns.
The number of European Firearm Passes on issue at the end of 1997 was 379.