Scotlands legal gun ownership at 10-year high

“Weapons held”

Scotland’s Chief Statistician today published  firearm certificates statistics Scotland 2009 .

This includes statistics on the number of firearm and shot gun certificates on issue in Scotland at the end of 2009, along with the number of weapons held on certificate.

The main findings are:

There were 26,072 firearm certificates on issue at the end of 2009, a decrease of one per cent on the previous year, and nine per cent lower than the number in 2000

“Public safety”

However, the number of firearms held on certificate was 70,856, an increase of two per cent from 2008 and the highest number held in the 10 years covered by the bulletin

The number of shot gun certificates on issue at the end of 2009 was 50,308, an increase of less than one per cent from 2008, but 14 per cent lower than at the end of 2000

However, the number of shot guns held on certificate was 137,768, a decrease of 0.1 per cent compared to 2008, but an increase of 11 per cent since the end of 2000

There were 335 registered firearms dealers in Scotland at the end of 2009, an increase of two per cent from the 327 registered dealers at the end of 2008

Since 1997, various changes have been made to firearms legislation to enhance public safety: