HC Deb 03 November 1983 vol 47 c994
15. Mr. Chapman

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proposals he has to discourage the misuse of air weapons.

Mr. Hurd

The Government will be holding a national publicity campaign before Christmas to increase public awareness of the dangers of the misuse of air weapons and to encourage safe practice. The campaign will be launched by the Home Office on Tuesday 8 November.

Mr. Chapman

I welcome the national publicity campaign, which is surely a response to the strong evidence of the increasing misuse of airguns and air rifles. However, does my right hon. Friend agree that the laws relating to the use of air weapons are extremely complicated and confusing, as instanced by the fact that there are four completely different sets of rules concerning four different age groups in our society? Will he sympathetically consider tightening and simplifying the laws and regulations?

Mr. Hurd

I am not sure that the law is all that complicated. It is strong,and nearly every case of serious misuse involves a breach of the law. Perhaps we should see how we get on with our campaign for drawing attention to the law and to the right way of using airguns.

Mr. Denis Howell

Has the Minister yet had time to consider the evidence that I sent to the Home Secretary recently, showing that three types of airguns and nine types of air rifles are now being advertised by Empire Catalogues? As one tenth of serious crimes now involve firearms, and there is growing public concern about that, will the Minister take account of this new trend and assure us that he will do everything that he can to see that the sale of firearms is restricted to sporting, countryside and other legitimate interests?

Mr. Hurd

Yes, we are watching this carefully, but our present view is that a ban on mail order sales would serve very little purpose.