FRESH calls have been made for BB guns to be banned following a sudden rise in armed police being called out to false alarms and a youngster being shot in the eye by one of the "toys", reports Ellis Butcher.

Mother-of-three Jayne Reeve, from Flookburgh, this week joined Grange-over-Sands community bobby PC Colin Morris in calling for them to be outlawed after her son was hit on the eyelid with a plastic pellet while at Cartmel Races.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Collins has stopped short of supporting a ban but has agreed to take up the issue with the Home Office to see if sales of BB guns could have an age restriction.

On Wednesday night, armed police were called to Grange Fell Road in Grange after a group of youths were reported carrying handguns later found to be BB guns.

It was the second armed response call to the town in a month after officers surrounded the forecourt of the petrol filling station on Station Square in May.

Officers found that a group of youths in a car, which was later traced to the Manchester area, had shot at a man with a BB gun as he filled up his vehicle sparking fears that an armed robbery was taking place.

Cumbria Police have to assume such weapons are lethal until proven otherwise.

PC Morris said this week: "If a member of the public has a BB gun pointed at them they would think it was a real gun and someone is going to lose the sight in their eye, if not worse.

"My main message to parents is not to let your children have them because if we see them, they will get stopped in the street and they also run the risk of getting hurt with one.

"How long does this have to go on before it's a darker evening, someone is seen with one and runs off and the armed response unit is called out?

"If someone loses their eye with one, there will be an outcry and a ban. If a youth is shot by armed police there will be an outcry and a ban why do we seem to wait for something major to happen before we do anything?"

The warning follows fears expressed by Cumbria Police last August that youths carrying BB guns in a public place could come into conflict with their firearms experts, who carry Hechler and Koch MP5 rifles and Glock Pistols.

Mrs Reeve said son Daniel, 14, could have lost an eye, had he not squinted from the sun.

Police have since spoken to a 16-year-old youth from Grange about his behaviour.

Mrs Reeve, of Somme Avenue, Ravenstown, said: "I think they should make them illegal because they are lethal weapons. It could have taken his eye out. I want people to realise how dangerous they are and to know that they should be banned altogether."

In May last year, a seven-year-old girl in Ambleside was left with eight red welts after being targeted by youngsters carrying BB guns.

Police believe the increasing use of the toys in the Grange area may be connected to their widespread availability at the race event last week.

Although it is not an offence to sell the guns, responsible traders carry warnings of the dangers, while some of the guns' packaging tells users not to fire at people.

Peter Wilson, a spokesman for the Home Office, said efforts to control the use of soft air weapons, including BB guns, was covered in Section 37 of the Anti Social Behaviour Act (2003), given Royal Assent last year.

However, Mr Wilson said the act did not ban BB guns, but did make it an offence to carry one in a public place without lawful or reasonable excuse.

MP Tim Collins now plans to see if it could be made an offence to sell such weapons to under 18s or under 21s, as he did not want to penalise those who legitimately used the guns safely for target practice.

Greg Stephenson, of Cumbria Police, explained that armed response units were dispatched to protect the public and unarmed officers.