Shooting from the lip

New licensing regarding air rifle ownership is just the latest in a long list of nanny-state regulations that are most certainly not ‘for our own good’

Lying along a grassy mound, elbows resting in the dirt, you carefully line up the cross in the viewfinder over the image of steaming cock-a-leekie that’s emblazoned in the centre of the label on the tin. Steadying your bottom hand on the air rifle, you slowly squeeze the trigger. Roaring silence for a fraction of a second, followed by the satisfying sound of a hit as the can pings off the wall.

Sound familiar? For generations plinking – informal target shooting – has been a classic pastime in rural Scotland. Many have fond teenage memories of summers spent with siblings in the garden, seeing who can hit more tin cans, or burst the most water-filled balloons.

Controlling pests like brown rats and rabbits on farmland and crofts is another common use for air weapons in Scotland, of which there are an estimated half million – that’s one per 10 of the country’s population. And then there are those that smack of nostalgia, barely touched since those first shooting experiences firing at Above: Shooting tin cans off a wall has long been a classic pastime in rural Scotland. targets with a friend after school, now gathering dust in the attic or languishing in a barn.

Are you the owner of one of those? If so, you’d better have a think about exactly where it is now. Because in a few months, that forgotten airgun at the back of the garage could mean you’re breaking the law. From January 2017, it will be an offence to use, or possess, a low-powered air rifle or pistol in Scotland without having a Police Scotland air weapon certificate, thanks to the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act – a bizarre piece of legislation which lumps measures to control air weapons alongside scrap metal dealers, taxi drivers and sexual entertainment venues. The Bill, passed last June, includes the introduction of air weapon licensing despite cross-party politicians and shooting organisations like the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) opposing the principal. If you don’t have an air weapon certificate by Hogmanay, you could face a fine or imprisonment for up to two years