The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will conclude its work in March 2026 ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election. While it will continue to meet, the Committee has agreed it will not consider petitions submitted after 10 October. This is to ensure all petitions currently in the system can be considered before the next Scottish Parliament election. It is also unlikely that the Committee would be able to schedule and meaningfully progress petitions submitted after 10 October before the election. Contact the Committee team at petitions.committee@parliament.scot for more information about the petitions process.
If you are seeking emergency action or an urgent policy change please contact one of your 8 MSPs or the Scottish Government directly
Closed petition PE1874: Introduce legislation to create artillery and firearms exclusion zones around places of spiritual importance and religious worship
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce legislation to create artillery and firearms exclusion zones around places of spiritual importance and religious worship within Scotland.
Previous action taken
Contact has been made with MSPs, MPs, Councillors, and the Dumfries & Galloway Local Authority Planning Department. All parliamentary politicians have been openly supportive in their correspondence, however none are in a practical position to submit a Member's Bill to the Scottish Parliament, to likely effect the change in Scottish Law that we seek.
Background information
There is currently nothing in law to prohibit the development of firearms ranges in close proximity to places of spiritual importance and religious worship.
Applications for two new private firearms ranges have recently been made for development beside Samye Ling Buddhist Monastery in Dumfriesshire. This is a site of national spiritual importance, being the oldest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the western world, drawing international visitors to Scotland seeking peace of mind, for over 50 years.
The operators have marketed their sites to the US military, who have already held exercises on the land.
The sound of regular gunfire would be intrusively detrimental to Samye Ling’s peaceful environment.
We believe that no new firearms range should ever be approved within 5 miles of an established cathedral, temple, synagogue, mosque, or monastery.
This would protect the peaceful environment sought by people visiting or staying at these places and mean they are not subject to the intrusive and violent noise of regular audible gunfire.
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
10,290 signatures