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BB GUN-carrying youths run the risk of being shot by a police marksman, Blackpool's top cop has warned.
Many traders along The Promenade sell the ball-bearing firing weapons at pocket money-type prices, yet they could soon cost someone their life.
Chief Supt Russ Weaver has warned that with the line between real firearm and imitation becoming increasingly blurred, a tragic incident is just waiting to happen.
Chief Supt Weaver said: "From a distance it is almost impossible for our officers to tell if the threat is real or we are dealing with a BB gun, but we cannot take the chance.
"It only takes someone not to
comply with instructions from the firearms officers, or to move in an
unpredictable manner and, if officers feel they are under threat or in any danger, it could end very tragically.
"These things are a real problem and it has the potential to go very wrong."
Threat
The comments come as Alan Green, deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, told the annual conference of the Association of Chief Police Officers that is it only a matter of time before a police marksman is forced into a situation where he has to fire on a replica-carrying youngster.
He said: "The threat from imitation firearms isn't that of slight injuries to young people. It is that police
officers are likely to shoot someone at the age of 13 in the not-too-distant
future."
Chief Supt Weaver agrees. He said: "I would have to agree that these BB guns are a continual problem. They in themselves are not particularly dangerous weapons, in that they do not cause very serious injury, but the problem is that we get quite a lot of very well intentioned calls from members of the public who have seen firearms.
"They have no way of knowing if they are real or not and we are obliged to treat every call of this type very carefully.
"This means we have to have highly-trained firearms officers ready and, as soon as you issue firearms, you run the risk of someone being shot.
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Weather for Blackpool
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: West
