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Police swoop ontoy gun boy, 10

Police swoop on toy gun boy, 10


By Mark Blacklock
1    SCHOOLBOY James Elsmore spent   

‘It was really
over the top
and scary’

    year-old would have a real gun?” The
 his pocket money on a toy gun - and youngster, who had been visiting his
 triggered a fullscale armed alert. uncle and aunt as a treat, was allowed
 James, 10, took the imitation rifle to keep the 3ft-long toy gun and told
 back to his uncle’s house, where he that because he was under the age of
 fired pellets at a wall. A neighbour criminal responsibility, he would not
 saw the youngster spread flat, be charged. He is now back home with
 sniperstyle, and he dialled 999 in a his mother Mandy in Birmingham.
 panic. When police were told a sus-4    A Somerset Police spokesman said:
 pected gunman was on the loose, they “To the untrained eye, an imitation
 sent an armed response unit to the firearm can appear to be the real thing.
 house in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. It has to be treated as such because the
 They stormed into the home of the boy’s safety of the public and police officers
 uncle Trevor Taylor, who is at stake. Naturally, this is 6 . One
 coincidentally collects replica firearms way of dealing with this is to send
 and swords, only to find James firearms officers - and in this case
 clutching his toy. there were reports of a male with a
2    “We heard a furious banging at the firearm. The message to parents is not
 front door and when I opened it armed to buy children toys that look like
 police were standing there,” said Mr guns. And beware, there are also
 Taylor. “For a moment I thought it was serious consequences for children
 a joke - that someone was playing a carrying imitation firearms in the
 trick on me. They said they had come street.”
 about a gun. They burst in with their5    The Gun Control Network, which
 guns and totally overreacted to the campaigns to have the import,
 situation. It was well over the top and manufacture and sale of imitation guns
 very scary.” prohibited, said similar warnings have
3    James, from Birmingham, said: already been issued around the
 “I bought the gun from a market with country.
 my pocket money. What kind of 10-