Firearms Certificate Statistics, Scotland, March 2014

2. Main Points

• There were 26,101 firearm certificates on issue at the end of March 2014, a marginal increase (less than half of 1%) compared to the end of December 2013. Within its historical context, the figure remains relatively low (Table 1 and Charts 1 and 2).
• The 26,101 firearm certificates on issue at the end of March 2014 covered the possession of 91,863 items. There was an artificial increase of over 12,000 in the number of items held on firearm certificates between the end of December 2012 and December 2013. This is due to a change in recording practices in relation to sound moderators and is nearly wholly attributable to an increase in the number of miscellaneous firearms. A similar issue has resulted in a further increase of around 7,500 items held on a firearm certificates between the end of 2013 and end of March 2014. Again, this can be almost wholly accounted for by an increase in the number of miscellaneous firearms. For further information please see Note 5.2.6. (Table 1 and Chart 2).
• There were 49,165 shotgun certificates on issue at the end of March 2014, an increase of 1% from the end of 2013. Despite increases since the end of 2012, there has been a 4% decrease in the number of shotgun certificates on issue since the end of December 2005 covered by this bulletin (Table 3 and Charts 1 and 3).
• The 49,165 shotgun certificates on issue at the end of March 2014 covered the possession of 142,142 shotguns, the highest number of shotguns held on certificates in the period covered by this bulletin. This is an increase of 10% in the number of shotguns held on certificate compared to the end of 2005 (Table 3 and Chart 3).
• The average number of shotguns held on each certificate issued has increased from 2.5 at the end of 2005 to 2.9 at the end of March 2014, which has remained the same since the end of 2011 (Table 3).
• There were 358 registered firearm dealers in Scotland at the end of March 2014, an increase of eight since the end of 2013. This is the highest number of registered dealers in the ten year period covered by this bulletin, an increase of just under a third (30%) from the 275 registered dealers at the end of 2005 (Table 4).