http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUsa1a6B7yU

“TEENAGERS as young as 13 have been granted shotgun licenses in Scotland – according to Scottish Government figures,” deadlinescotland.wordpress.com reports. “And the number of legally owned firearms and shotguns in the country has rocketed by more than 25,000 in the last 10 years as there are now more than 200,000 legally held weapons . . . Currently, there are 208,624 legally held guns in the country. That’s up from 182,856 in 2000.” I make that an increase of 25,768 shotguns in ten years, or 2576 per year . . .

Given Scotland’s population (around five million) it seems to me that the country’s shotgun ownership “rocket” had a failure to launch. In total, we’re talking roughly one gun for every 25 people. In England, one out of every 31 citizens has a legal gun. According to a 2005 Gallup poll, half of all Americans own a gun.

Note: Scotland’s and England’s stats make no allowances for multiple gun ownership. They average-out the total number of guns per total head of population. The U.S. stats reflect absolute gun ownership. So our gun ownership percentages are massively higher than the U.K.’s. As you’d expect, really.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. I think it is actually one out of every two households in the US. It is nice to get some good news from the (formerly) Great Britain though.

  2. Scotland gave up its gun control rights to the Brits about ten years ago in a political deal for greater home rule for the Scottish Parliament. The Brits are actually LESS restrictive in granting shotgun permits that Scotland would like to be, if you can imagine that. If the Scottish government had its way, all guns would be banned, even air guns and, I expect, paintball guns. I'm not kidding. That's being debated now, since England has just returned airsoft control back to Scotland in yet another political deal. So, yes, it has been easier for Scots to obtain shotgun licenses in the last decade, but not much. Neither country promotes self defense. No monarchy ever does. It just wouldn't be cricket.

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