Firearm Certificate Statistics, Scotland, 2011

2. Main Points

It should be noted that amendments to firearm regulations in January 1995 increased the validity period of firearm and shotgun certificates from three to five years. This effectively meant that there were no certificate renewals in either 1998 or 1999 and this in turn has had a cyclical effect of increasing the number of certificate renewals, cancellations and certificates on issue in certain years, whilst reducing the number in the intervening years.

• There were 25,831 firearm certificates on issue at the end of 2011, the lowest number of firearm certificates on issue over the ten year period covered by this bulletin. (Table 1 and Chart 1)
• The 25,831 firearm certificates on issue at the end of 2011 covered the possession of 71,860 firearms, the highest number of firearms held on certificate over the last ten years. This is an increase of 19 per cent in the number of firearms held on certificate since 2002. (Table 1)
• The average number of firearms held on each certificate issued has increased from 2.3 in 2002 to 2.8 in 2011. (Table 1)

• There were 48,726 shotgun certificates on issue at the end of 2011, the lowest number of shotgun certificates on issue over the ten year period covered by this bulletin. (Table 4)

• The 48,726 shotgun certificates on issue at the end of 2011 covered the possession of 138,939 shotguns, the highest number of shotguns held on certificate over the last ten years. This is an increase of 13 per cent in the number of shotguns held on certificate since 2002. (Table 4)
• The average number of shotguns held on each certificate issued has increased from 2.4 in 2002 to 2.9 in 2011. (Table 4)

• There were 347 registered firearm dealers in Scotland at the end of 2011. This is the highest number of registered dealers in the last ten year period and an increase of three per cent from the 337 registered dealers at the end of 2010. (Table 6)