By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor
Published: 1:27PM GMT 04 Dec 2009

Police have warned that children playing with toy guns run the risk of being confronted by armed marksmen Senior officers in Essex said plastic guns are now so realistic that even a trained police marksman may not be able to tell it’s a toy, leading to potential confrontations between armed officers and children. But one parents’ group dismissed the warning as “nonsense” and said no officer could seriously consider the likes of a seven-year-old waving a plastic toy around as a threat. Essex police said most children, parents and teachers are unaware of the risks generated by toy guns and insisted that passers-by could think they were genuine weapons. Supt Simon Williams said: “Replica weapons look so much like the real thing that they … can terrorise individuals and communities. “The majority of children, teachers and parents are simply not aware of the issues and consequences of carrying around such items – they don’t realise the impact these so-called ‘toys’ have on our communities and on us.” A spokesman for the force added: “When we respond to such incidents we cannot always identify whether a gun is real or fake. “Carrying an imitation gun could ultimately result in a highly-trained armed officer having to challenge a teenager and so, naturally, we are worried. “We have been deployed to nearly 900 firearms incidents so far this year, with a significant number involving replica or BB guns. This has to stop now.”
However, Margaret Morrissey, of the Parents Outloud campaign group, said: “We are getting this all a bit out of proportion. “Considering the age of the child that would have a toy gun there is probably a million to one chance that a marksman is going to consider them a threat, what we need to be doing is to stop replica guns being sold in toy shops I am confident no one would argue with that and to educate any parent it is wrong to purchase such realistic guns, unfortunately there are those parent who will buy replica guns so let get them banned and still allow real toys to be sold. We will not change generations of little boys who want to play “Cops and Robber or cowboys and Indians .”We all want to be serious and safe but at the end of the day we are going to end up with a totally paranoid set of children between seven and 10 coming up,. It is just nonsense even though we appreciate the polices concern not well put so hopefully the police will work with us to encourage a ban on replica guns being sold to anyone .” In March last year armed police sealed off a street and handcuffed a man after an alert sparked by his four-year-old son’s toy gun. They acted after a passer-by dialled 999 after seeing the ‘firearm’ in Tadas Natuatas’s car. And in February this year, a couple’s “cowboys and Indians” fancy dress wedding anniversary party sparked a police raid, including a helicopter, when their toy guns were mistaken for the real thing. Wild West fans Roy and Val Worthington were had left a church after renewing their vows to mark 25 years of marriage and were walking along the road with family and friends dressed as cowboys, Indian braves and Mexicans when police acted following reports of “firearms” in the area. The warning comes amid growing concerns of the spread of gun crime in Britain.