Hand in replica guns, police urge

Police want to alert youngsters to changes in the law

Youngsters are being urged to hand in their imitation guns to police or face being arrested by armed officers.

Officers are increasingly concerned about a surge in popularity of replica firearms among schoolchildren.

They have set up a month-long weapons "hand-in" to draw attention to changes in the law which make it an arrestable offence to carry fake guns in public.

"We want to get as many of these off the streets as we can in February," a South Yorkshire Police spokesman said.

Armed response

"The problem is that kids can buy these guns in shops quite legally but it is an arrestable offence to possess an imitation firearm in public.

"So we get calls from members of the public saying they have seen somebody with a gun and we have to respond with armed officers.

"They no longer think a 14 or 15-year-old with a gun will be just playing with a toy."

Plastic pellet guns and ball-bearing (BB) guns can be surrendered at any police station in South Yorkshire from 1 February until 28 February.