Updated on
Summary Hundreds of primary school-age children are being granted shotgun licences in London.
Between 2008 and 2010, licences were granted to 281 children aged 11 and under — including one as young as seven. Five licences were granted to eight-year-olds, 25 to those aged nine, and 92 to ten-year-olds. Another 158 licences were given to children aged 11.The figures shows, about 4,771 licences were granted to children aged 16 and under — an average of four a day.A commons debate on whether children under ten should be banned from being granted shotgun licences put things in perspective.Children may not be given licences for other firearms, such as rifles, until they are 14, but there is no lower limit for shotguns.The decision to grant a licence rests with a senior police officer, and all under-18s must have an adult over 21 with a firearms licence to vouch for them.Labour MP Thomas Docherty is introducing a Bill to ban the use of shotguns by children under ten, the age of criminal responsibility. He said the current law was so badly drafted that a chief constable could turn down an application on only two grounds.The first was whether an applicant had past criminal convictions. Docherty pointed out that children this young did not have convictions.The second is whether the chief constable feels there is no reason to grant an application, he said.
