A blast on airguns - and a little touch of spin

IN THE scale of human tragedy, the killing of a child ranks high. I can't begin to imagine the agony faced by the parents in such dreadful circumstances. In the measurement of political actions, anything other than a proper and proportionate response by politicians to such tragedies must rank pretty low. I fear that the Scottish Executive is on the low side in the current debate about air weapons.

It is no coincidence that Sunday's newspapers were full of a briefing from Alex Salmond's officials that he hoped to have laws passed pulling together all the elements of legislation covering firearms and adding a ban on the ownership of airguns (exc...