Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 2012-13

2. Main Points

• In 2012-13, Scottish police forces recorded 365 offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been involved, a decrease of 32% from the 535 recorded in 2011-12. This is the lowest recorded total for the ten year period covered by this bulletin (Table 1).
• The number of Homicides involving a firearm decreased from five in 2011-12 to one in 2012-13. The number of Attempted murders involving a firearm decreased by 82%, falling from 11 offences in 2011-12 to two in 2012-13 (Table 1).
• The number of Robberies involving the use of a firearm decreased from 82 in 2011-12 to 39 in 2012-13, a decrease of 52%. The number of offences of Reckless conduct with a firearm fell by 40% between 2011-12 and 2012-13 (Table 1).
• A total of 17 Vandalism offences involving the alleged use of a firearm were recorded in 2012-13, falling by 35% from the 26 offences recorded in 2011-12. The number of Common assaults involving a firearm decreased by 28%, from 99 in 2011-12 to 71 in 2012-13 (Table 1).
• The use of firearms in criminal activity continued to constitute only a small proportion of all offences recorded by the police in 2012-13; 1.5% of Homicides (one offence), 0.6% of Attempted murders (two offences) and 2.1% of Robberies (39 offences). Less than 0.5% of all Serious assaults, Vandalism offences and Common assaults involved the alleged use of a firearm (Table 2).
• Air weapons accounted for 47% (171) of all offences involving the alleged involvement of a firearm in 2012-13, compared to 37% (197) in 2011-12 (Table 3).
• Between 2011-12 and 2012-13, the number of offences involving each of the different categories of firearms decreased, with the exception of offences involving a rifle. Offences involving a rifle increased to 16 offences in 2012-13 compared to 6 offences in 2011-12 (Table 3).
• The number of offences in which a firearm was discharged and caused fatal or non-fatal injury decreased by 31% from 95 in 2011-12 to 66 in 2012-13 (Table 5).
• Of the 66 main victims who were either fatally or non-fatally injured during an offence in which a firearm was discharged in 2012-13, 41 were male (62%) and 25 were female (38%). Of these victims, 19 were aged between 11 and 15 years (29%) and five were aged 10 years and under (8%). There were no reported offences involving the shooting of a police officer causing fatal or non-fatal injury (Table 10).
• In 2012-13, 66% of all offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been involved were cleared up, a decrease of five percentage points from the 71% in 2011-12. This is still the third highest clear up rate after 2010-11 and 2011-12, recorded in the ten year period covered by this bulletin (Table 11).
• In 2012-13, the main accused was aged 15 years or under in 16% (38 offences) of the 241 cleared up offences involving the use of a firearm. A further 24% (59 offences) of cleared up offences were committed by an accused aged 16 to 20 years (Table 12).