Traders urged to halt gun sales

Traders are being urged to sign up to a new scheme aimed at restricting the sale of replica guns.

Derbyshire Police has teamed up with local authorities to draw up a voluntary code of practice for stores.

It allows shopkeepers to enter into an agreement to withdraw BB or replica guns from sale and commit not to sell them in the future.

Traders who sign up will be given a Gunsafe "Responsible Trader" sticker to display in their premises.

'Countless incidents'

Assistant Chief Constable Mick Creedon said: "At the moment as the law stands someone can walk into shop and buy one of these guns freely.

"But they then face the situation that if they walk out of that shop and produce this gun in public they can be arrested.

"What we hope this code of practice does is provide an effective alternative to statutory legislation by making these weapons more difficult to get hold of in Derbyshire.

"We are dealing with countless incidents each week where we have to deploy in some cases armed officers to reports of someone being seen with a firearm and it turning out to be a BB gun or the like."