The headline at news.stv.tv says it all: “Number of children admitted to hospital with gun injuries more than doubles; Official figures show 13 kids required hospital treatment following ‘accidental discharge’ of a firearm in 2009-10.” Or do they? Never mind the pic above, ripped from the story, showing a bunch of big ass guns. You do know that Scotland—like England, Wales and both Irelands—classifies air rifles/pellet guns as firearms, right? In fact, they call out the armed police response team and launch investigations when said “toys” are used illegally. Anyway, these gun-related hospital admissions (no report on injuries or deaths) account for roughly .0000025 percent of Scotland’s 5,194,000 current inhabitants. Anyone want to bet how many kids are admitted to hospital with bug bites, bicycle injuries or a sore post-haggis tummy? Never mind that, Scots pols want to launch an investigation! Seriously . . .
Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Robert Brown, who obtained the Scottish Government data, said the jump in accidental injuries should be investigated.
He said: “The UK has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. Children should not be hospitalised as a result of gun accidents.
“The number of children admitted to hospital after gun accidents has more than doubled since 2008-09. The Scottish Government needs to investigate this so we can bring these numbers back down.”
“Children should not be able to get their hands on legally owned firearms – they should be locked away. Something is going wrong with the law as it stands and Scottish ministers have a duty to look into this.”
Seems the Scots see this issues (as it does all issues) as proof that the Scottish parliament needs more power, Captain!
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Incidents where a firearm has caused an injury are decreasing, with a 52% drop involving under-10s and a 63% drop involving 11 to 13-year-olds. But any incident is one too many.
“Scottish ministers have said many times that we either need action at a UK level, or the UK Government need to agree to devolve firearms legislation wholesale, to ensure that the law is better able to protect Scottish communities.”
I like the Proclaimers, but proclamations like this scare the beJesus out of me.
