A CRACKDOWN on airguns will be introduced in Scotland in memory of a toddler murdered in a shooting.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill told MSPs the country owed it to two-year-old Andrew Morton, who was shot at random in Glasgow in March 2005.
Andrew was watching firefighters attend an incident in Craigend in the city's east end when he was shot in the head by drug addict Mark Bonini. He died in hospital two days later.
Bonini was jailed for life with a recommendation he serve at least 13 years.
Westminster recently agreed to devolve jurisdiction over airguns to Holyrood and Mr MacAskill said the powers would be used at the earliest opportunity.
The Justice Secretary said it would not be the outright ban many had called for but said the measures would be designed to take the weapons off the streets.
He said airguns were "not toys", adding: "They hurt, maim and tragically kill, as we know all too tragically.
"We owe it to the memory of Andrew Morton to ensure action is taken."
He said the Government would aim to bring in laws to licence new weapons while taking into account legitimate use of airguns such as for sporting clubs.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article