Police swoop on toy gun boy, 10By Mark Blacklock | ||||||||
1 | SCHOOLBOY James Elsmore spent |
‘It was really
| 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 their | 5 | 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- |