Scotland could lead the way in piloting a licence scheme for buying airguns under plans set out yesterday by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.

The minister said guns should only be allowed for those people, such as farmers, with a commercial reason for having them, and members of clubs. However, the licence scheme could only happen if the UK Government agrees to the call for a tidying up of confusing weapons legislation.

Yesterday's three-hour meeting looked at the possibility of licensing people at the point at which they buy air weapons.

According to First Minister Alex Salmond, the law is a "guddle, amended and extended over 40 years" and there is a need for "a spring clean rather than a sticking plaster" to bring it up to date.

Yesterday's meeting at Bute House - looking particularly at the Scottish concern with air weapons - included police, gun clubs, opposition parties and the families of gun crime victims. They included Dr Mick North, whose daughter Sophie was killed in the Dunblane shootings and Sharon McMillan, mother of Andrew Morton who died near his Glasgow home when shot with an airgun pellet.

Mr MacAskill said after the meeting there was a consensus on calling for Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary whose department handles gun law for all of the UK, to revise gun law, as the current ones, reckoned to include 23 different pieces of legislation, were drawn up in piecemeal response to public outcry at particular events and is not fit for purpose.

Ms Smith had been invited to attend the Edinburgh gathering but declined.

A Home Office spokeswoman, responding to the call for new legislation, said there had been work with Holyrood ministers on legal measures that were only now coming into effect, including a ban on buying an airgun aged under 18, and that it should be given time to have an impact.

She added it would be confusing and potentially damaging to have different laws in Scotland and England when there is no restriction on cross-border movement.

"The changing patterns of misuse both north and south of the border cannot be attributed to differences in the law: there are other social, cultural and situational factors to be taken into account," said the spokeswoman.