§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is his estimate of the number of(a) legal and (b) illegal ball-bearing pellet guns in circulation; how many reports of incidents involving the use of these weapons have been received by the (i) police and (ii) other agencies in each of the last five years. [95426]
§ Mr. IngramI assume that my hon. Friend is referring to low powered airguns or CO2 guns rather than conventional air weapons.
As those that fire plastic pellets are not, in most cases, considered to be lethal barrelled firearms and do not require firearms certificates, the numbers in circulation are not known.
742WAs regards incidents of misuse of these kinds of guns, for instance with ball-bearings, the information is not held centrally by the police and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.