STV today have Scotland’s biggest firearm scare story:

Police who were called out to investigate reports of a possible firearm in Glasgow discovered the item in question was a toy.

https://news.stv.tv/west-central/police-scotland-called-out-to-reports-of-a-firearm-in-glasgow-find-toy

That prompted me to check the facts.

First in Scotland:

In 2021-22, the police in Scotland recorded 273 offences in which a firearm was alleged to have been involved, a decrease of 23% from 2020-21 (353 offences) and down 20% from 2019-20 (341 offences),

In England & Wales:

The police recorded 6,645 offences involving firearms in the year ending June 2023, a 13% increase compared with the year ending June 2022 (5,860 offences). 

With 11 times the population, England & Wales might be expected to have had 11×273 or 3 003 cases in 2021/20-22, but actually had 5860, almost twice as many.

Note also, the downward trend in Scotland and the upward trend in England & Wales.

If these stats went the other way, with far more firearm offences in Scotland, as for drug deaths reporting, you can be sure who’d be blamed – the SNP.

So, given that, why can’t the SNP get the credit when it goes the other way?

Sources:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crimes-offences-involving-firearms-scotland-2020-21-2021-22/pages/2/#:~:text=In%202021%2D22%2C%20the%20police,since%20records%20began%20in%201980.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2023#:~:text=5.-,Offences%20involving%20firearms,March%202020%20(6%2C511%20offences).