cuchulainn
Member
I honestly dont know whether to laugh, cry or rant.
http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk...fm?objectid=12598181&method=full&siteid=50002
http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk...fm?objectid=12598181&method=full&siteid=50002
Kids to get gun lessons
Feb 3 2003
By Sarah Probert, Birmingham Post
All children should have supervised access to firearms if rising levels of gun crime are to be curbed, the leader of a national rural pressure group has claimed.
Richard Burge, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said children's only experiences of guns came from gory Hollywood blockbusters and video games.
Mr Burge said youngsters needed to be educated about the dangers of the weapons and one of the methods that could be used would be supervised access.
But the idea was dismissed by senior police officers while Birmingham MP Steve McCabe, who is campaigning for a ban on imitation firearms, described it as "grossly irresponsible".
"I have reservations about an age in which children are introduced to guns to shoot and to kill," said Mr McCabe.
"I think in a country where there is a real danger of the gun culture getting out of control, it would be grossly irresponsible."
Mr Burge said the increase in the use of guns was a problem for both urban and rural areas, and part of that stemmed from attitudes towards firearms.
He said: "The problem is access to illegal guns and attitudes towards guns.
"At one time every young man had some form of experience of handling guns, usually within school.
"We need to find some way to get across to young people the dangers of these things and the respect which they have got to be given. Part of that is giving supervised access.
"One way is to make sure everyone has an opportunity to fire a gun and seeing and learning about its dangers, the security of the weapon and the huge responsibility anyone with one has."
The Government introduced a total ban on handguns in 1997 following the Dunblane massacre but the Countryside Alliance has said that since then crimes involving the weapons has more than doubled, from 2,636 in 1997/1998 to 5,871 in 2001.
There is currently no age restriction for the possession of ball-bearing guns, soft air weapons or replica guns, although air weapons such as rifles cannot be bought or hired by anyone under the age of 17.
Mr McCabe (Hall Green) is campaigning for a ban on the sale, import and manufacture of imitation guns, which are used in 80 per cent of firearms cases investigated by West Midland Police.
"There is no argument in the current climate to try and recruit large numbers of children into the gun lobby," said Mr McCabe.
"I don't think there is a parent in Birmingham at the moment who would be asking the education authority to put that on the curriculum."
A spokeswoman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said it would not encourage supervised access to guns.
"ACPO would not encourage any moves that introduce firearms to young people, though the strength of concerns would vary from community to community."
A West Midlands Police spokeswoman added: "Possession of handguns is illegal and we would not support any measures which would encourage their use or availability."
But supporting Mr Burge's comments, Jeffrey Olstead, of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, said:
"There is no point saying guns are nasty and you shouldn't talk about them in the same way that people have said drugs are nasty and you shouldn't talk about them.
"If boys and girls are interested then provide them with the proper training and facilities, give them the opportunity so it either gets out of their system or they decide to take it up as a sport."