Why was child, 9, given gun licence? (From Swindon Advertiser)

Why was child, 9, given gun licence?

10:43am Tuesday 9th October 2007

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IS it right that primary school children can be legally armed? Following a recent Freedom Of Information request Devon and Cornwall police admitted granting a shotgun certificate to a nine-year-old child.

Doubtless other police forces have done likewise.

A youngster has to wait until 16 to marry, 17 to drive a car and 18 to vote but at nine can be armed.

The shooting brigade is a vociferous lobby, forever claiming their right' to do whatever to our wildlife.

Doubtless they exert extreme pressure to allow their young children to use shotguns to kill birds and animals.

The age of criminal responsibility is 10, which is low compared to other countries.

Why 10? Because below that age children are judged not to be responsible for their actions, yet Devon and Cornwall police see fit to arm them with shotguns.

Perhaps at times some police forget their duty to safeguard society as a whole.

Kids will be kids, but kids with guns can kill like men.

It is not the gun that kills but the person who pulls the trigger.

As such, society must think long and hard about who is armed; not criminals, not the insane and surely not the immature?

Across the world children are press-ganged to fight and die clutching AK47s precisely because they lack adult emotions. They are often fearless and can kill without pity.

Our children have the good fortune to be spared such horrors so why not teach them to respect and revere life rather than take it just for fun?

The age when children can have a shotgun certificate should be raised, certainly to the age of criminal responsibility and ideally to say the age for driving.

At present a child of ANY age can be given a shotgun certificate if the police so decide but common sense tells us it is courting disaster to arm children.

M J HUSKISSON.

Animal Welfare Information Service.

Halesworth, Suffolk

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