Shooting enthusiasts have been left “stressed” by Police Scotland delays in processing applications for air gun licences, according to the chairman of Tayside Airgun Club.
A new law introduced on January 1 means it is illegal to own an air rifle without holding an appropriate licence, which has to be granted by Police Scotland.
They say it could be June by the time it has completed processing applications.
Calls for airguns to be licences grew after two-year-old Andrew Morton was killed by an air rifle fired by a drug addict in Easterhouse in Glasgow in 2005.
Firearms legislation was devolved in 2012 and the Scottish Government introduced the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act in 2015.
But some shooting enthusiasts say there have been delays in processing applications and some applicants have been hit with additional fees on top of the £72 charge for a licence because of checks made on pre-existing medical conditions.
Bill Gordon, chairman of Tayside Airgun Club, which is based at Auchterhouse Country Sports just north of Dundee, said the delays have “caused some people a lot of stress”.
He said: “Where people have declared health conditions on their application forms, they were then sent medical consent forms so Police Scotland could contact their GP.
“Once the GP has written a report it has to be paid for — we have heard of fees ranging between £30 and £90 for this to be released to the police.
“The surgeries have not rushed to send the reports on and once the police have received the report it usually takes two to three weeks for the licence to be issued.”
Mr Gordon added: “About September we were alerted by one of our members who works for Citizens’ Advice that the police had said there would be a cut-off date for applications and this would be October 31.
“This was not mentioned originally and took some finding within the legislation.”
Mr Gordon said applications received by police before October 31 were dealt with first.
“This means that any of our newer members may not get a licence until the middle of this year,” he said.
“Some of our newer members have had to ask a current licence holder to hold their air guns for them as they were told by the police that if they hadn’t applied by October 31 they would not be able to keep their guns until they had a licence. This has caused some people a lot of stress.”
At the start of October last year, Police Scotland had received 2,642 applications for air gun licences but had only processed 418 of those.
However a spokeswoman said it has now processed the “vast majority” of applications.
She said: “Police Scotland would like to thank communities throughout Scotland for their support in relation to both the Air Weapon surrender campaign and the ongoing licensing process, where we have seen more than 18,500 unwanted air weapons surrendered to Police Scotland for secure destruction since last summer. Should you still have an unwanted air weapon, you can still hand it in.
“In relation to the administration process, by December 31 2016, we successfully processed the vast majority of the 7,000 applications, which in line with the legislation, were applied for and received before the cut-off date on November 1 2016.
“We are now focused on completing those applications received by members of the public who missed the cut-off date, which will continue between January and June 2017.”
