In the past year, 452 offences involving guns were recorded in the county.

However Staffordshire Police say the situation cannot be compared to the problem in some of the UK's inner cities.

They are stressing that offences involving firearms account for only a tiny proportion of all crime in the county, which is up by 12% on the previous year.

Public reassurance

And they argue more than half of the 452 gun crimes involved air weapons being used by children and youths where no-one was injured.

The situation here bears absolutely no resemblance, in either composition or scale, to that experienced in the larger Metropolitan policing areas Deputy chief constable David Swift

The police say there has also been a reduction in robberies involving firearms with a third of all gun offences being detected.

Deputy chief constable David Swift was anxious to reassure the public with what he says is the true level of gun crime.

He said: "Firearms, which include air weapons, are used in less than 0.4% of all crimes committed in Staffordshire, and in less than 0.9% of all crimes involving people being threatened or hurt.

"I hope that these figures will help people cut through the more alarmist news headlines and provide reassurance about the true level of gun crime in Staffordshire," he said.

"Although the use of firearms in crime did rise between 2000/01 and 20001/02, the rise was much less than for overall crime and our detection rates in this area are among some of our best."

He added: "The situation here bears absolutely no resemblance, in either composition or scale, to that experienced in the larger Metropolitan policing areas.

National figures released by the Home Office on Thursday showed that gun crime in England and Wales had risen by 35% in the past year.