Police allow children to pose with guns

A crowd of interested children get the chance to hold the gun and try on a SWAT style helmet and body armour at the community fair in Limehouse, East London.

A police force is being heavily criticised for letting 7 year-old school children hold their machine guns. Armed police officers even let pupils pose for pictures with the Koch MP5 and Heckler guns at a school summer fair.

A police representative claims the scheme was an initiative to learn the children about the perils of guns. The police force in Limehouse, London, was branded ’stupid’ and the police force has been accused of glamorising guns.

‘We’re tragically accustomed to seeing pictures of young boys wielding rifles in Liberia or Mogadishu but in Limehouse?’ George Galloway a local MP said. ‘The foolish display can serve only to normalise firearms or make them appear attractive, even glamorous.’ Armed police officers were also showing off body armour, a bullet-proof shield and a Swat-style helmet. The police also had unloaded hand guns attached to their side.

The event was staged only a mile away from where 35-year-old Curtis Adrian Smith was killed outside nightclub last month.

Police have defended the event, saying the scheme would stop people being involved in gun crime. ‘We’ve done this kind of thing in other places and it’s been very successful, and we will continue it in the future’ said Supt Andy Tarrant, from the Met’s CO19 unit. All the weapons were disabled and posed no risk to any members of the public, he added.

I’m not sure how letting children play and pose with guns is supposed to prevent gun crime, how do the police know that other events like this have been successful?

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