Air weapons are capable of inflicting serious and potentially fatal injury in children

St James' researchers

Under UK law, conventional air weapons do not require a licence and children under 14 can use them if supervised by an adult.

But the Leeds doctors call for air gun use to be restricted to supervised target ranges and for the power of their pellets to be reduced.

In 1998 to 1999, official statistics show there were almost 17,000 firearms offences, 60% of which involved air guns.

The following year, air gun offences increased by 17%.

One in five offences caused injury and in almost one in 10, the victim had to be admitted to hospital because of shock, fracture, or multiple wounds.

Eye injury is a major problem.

Education need

It is estimated that there are 4m air guns in UK households.

Doctors at St James' recorded 73 patients with air gun injuries between 1996 and 2001.

Half were under 18. Some children who were injured were as young as four.

Most of those injured were teenage boys.

In 16 of the children the pellet had penetrated the skin and in four it had caused deep internal injury.

The researchers, led by Dr Mark Stringer of the department of paediatric surgery at St James', wrote: "Air weapons are capable of inflicting serious and potentially fatal injury in children.

"Several measures to reduce air weapon injuries have been suggested.

"These include stricter legislation on the ownership and use of air weapons, promoting awareness of their hazards by wider education of the public, parents and retailers, and restricting use to supervised target ranges.

"It is time for a co-ordinated approach from the public, police, sporting organisations, manufacturers, and retailers, and politicians."

Danger

A spokeswoman for the Home Office commented: "There are already laws in place to control the use and possession of air weapons, particularly by young people."

She said it was an offence to give an air weapon to a person under 14 or to sell one to a person under 17. It is also an offence to have a loaded air weapon in a public place or to discharge one within 50 feet of the centre of a public road.

Carrying an air weapon with intent to endanger life or property carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) said the key was to increase knowledge about how dangerous air guns could be.

"People have to be aware that they are weapons, and in the wrong place they can cause damage.

"What we need to do is to educate people to understand that."

He added that adults need to ensure that air weapons did not fall into the hands of children.