A SPECIAL summit will be held in the Capital in an attempt to reform the law on firearms, including air weapons.
Ministers at Holyrood have been calling for Scotland to have its own ban on air guns and also want control of gun laws to be devolved.
But their demands have led to a row with Westminster, with the Home Office arguing such a ban on air weapons in
Scotland alone would be "confusing and potentially damaging".
Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said ministers were planning a summit to identify how the law on firearms could be reformed.
The event is to be held at the earliest practical date and Mr MacAskill revealed he has written to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith inviting the UK Government to jointly host the event.
Mr MacAskill explained: "We have a shared interest in bringing together all of the interests, to ensure the summit acts as a springboard for practical action to tackle the insidious weapons culture that we must not allow to get a grip on our communities." Other bodies, including gun control campaigners, countryside and shooting groups and law enforcement representatives will also be invited.
The announcement of the summit comes on the day Mr MacAskill is to raise the issue of firearms control during a debate in Holyrood.
And ahead of that he will today meet Dr Mick North, whose five-year-old daughter Sophie was killed in the Dunblane shooting, and Andrew Morton and Sharon McMillan, who have been campaigning for a ban on the sale of air guns following the death of their two-year-old son Andrew, who was struck in the head by an air pellet.
Mr MacAskill said: "Communities across Scotland are crying out for tougher action to tackle the spread and misuse of firearms, in particular air weapons."
He added: "Despite welcome past reforms, no responsible government can say the job is done. Not when firearms casualties in Scotland rose by a quarter last year – one in three of them children – and when cases of attempted murder involving firearms are almost three times that of a decade ago.
"So I'm frustrated the UK Government has refused to consider allowing the Scottish Parliament to act on this issue as our communities want."
Mr MacAskill rejected the nationwide approach that the Westminster Government has taken on the issue.
"A UK-wide approach can only have merit if the law underpinning it is fit for purpose," Mr MacAskill said.
"But, as the former Home Secretary indicated in 2004, the law is both difficult to understand and to enforce."
The justice secretary said the Home Office had asked the public for their views on an overhaul of the 1968 Firearms Act four years ago.
And he added: "It is now time to replace the existing piecemeal, complex and convoluted legislation.
"We need a robust regime – more straightforward for legitimate users to comply with and more efficient for our police to administer and enforce. Above all there needs to be a much greater focus on public safety."
The full article contains 516 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
