I noted the request from Chief Inspector Graham for replica firearms and unwanted air weapons to be handed in. I would remind concerned parents that possession of a replica in the home is not illegal nor is returning such an item from the shops.
The point regarding the difficulty of distinguishing replicas from the real thing was particularly interesting. Firstly where is the line of distinction between obvious toy and replica? Clearly we do not expect a game of cowboys and Indians to end in arrest, so just how real is too real?
This ambiguity is one of the reasons that the change in the law was ill advised, another of course being that it will do nothing to reduce real gun crime - criminals aren't noted for obeying the law.
Also of interest was the implication that anyone with a replica firearm was putting themselves in danger. A fair point, especially when you consider the case of a man shot dead by police in possession of a table leg in a bag and the shooting of a naked man in his own bed. This might lead the uncharitable cynic to draw the conclusion that we are in less danger from inert toy guns than we are from armed police.
I know of more than one firearms training officer (not in Cumbria I must add) who has quit the training team in disgust at the erosion in standards of firearms training, resulting in part from the hand gun ban in 1997 which meant officers were unable to train outside work.
This latest change in the law will not have any more effect on real gun crime than the hand gun ban and is just another example of Labour's vendetta against shooting sports and firearms enthusiasts.