Although the UK currently has some of the tightest legislative controls in the world, the ban campaign has been fuelled by incidents such as the death of toddler Andrew Morton in Glasgow.

Speaking to the Tele after the meeting, Mr Vine argued that laws already on the statute books ill allow Scottish police to tackle irresponsible use of the weapons.

He pointed to the fact that forthcoming legislation will make it easier to trace ownership of the weapons, and deal with irresponsible sellers.

“It was a very useful and constructive meeting with the First Minister and the Justice Minister,” said Mr Vine, who represented the Association of Chief Police Officers (Scotland).

“What we have proposed is that we need to support the changes in legislation coming later this year, to regulate firearms dealers selling these weapons, which includes a ban on Internet sales.

“We have suggested we have a hand-in of unwanted air weapons, and that will happen later this year, perhaps early summer.

“What we have also said we should do is have complete enforcement of existing legislation, because there are various bits which cover the use of air weapons.

“In the past some of that has not been pursued by the fiscal, or has been seen as minor anti-social behaviour, such as breaking windows.

“What we have agreed is that it would be useful to have a situation where the misuse of air weapons is something that will always be referred to the prosecuting authorities with a view to court action being taken.”

While acknowledging the calls for an outright ban, Mr Vine said ACPOS had to provide a professional response based on the extent of the problem.

That will be better known once the new legislation comes into effect and the tougher enforcement regime begins to make an impact.

For the moment, however, Scotland’s eight police forces are saying that misuse of air weapons “isn’t a widespread problem”, said Mr Vine.

“That doesn’t detract from tragedies such as the death of Andrew Morton,” said the chief constable. “But of course it’s not the weapon that’s the problem, it is the person behind the weapon.

“Equally, we have a real problem in Scotland with knives, while I spoke this week at a road policing conference and made reference to the fact that over 20 children die on the roads every year. We are trying to take a proportionate response to the issue.”

At a cabinet meeting today, Scottish ministers agreed to monitor the situation and review the position again in spring, 2009.

A spokesman for the First Minister said, “The real result ministers want to see is communities feeling the legislation is working. What ministers discussed at cabinet, and what the First Minister reinforced afterwards, was that they’re prepared to take the approach recommended to them by the police. However, they want to keep a close eye on the rigorous enforcement of this.”

The spokesman added ministers also wanted to see the effect of non-legislative measures — such as an education campaign and a scheme urging people to hand in airguns. He also said the First Minister was “very keen” to set a time frame, and it had been agreed they review the situation in spring, 2009.

The spokesman said, “The First Minister stressed to cabinet he’s prepared to take that advice from the police, but with the caveat that he will keep a constant eye on this and see how it works.”