[West Ender]

There's a difference between a regular gun and an air gun - or is there? An air gun can kill, just like any other gun.

When my son was a teenager we bought him an air gun because he had discovered, on fair ground shooting stalls (from which he was, subsequently, banned for being too good and winning too often), that he was a natural marksman. There is a gun club a couple of miles from where we live and we allowed him to join. He used to go on a Sunday morning and, for the rest of the week, that air gun was locked away. He knew how to behave responsibly with the gun and he knew it could be lethal - he knew it because his dad and I hammered the message home to him (OK, nagged) constantly.

This tragedy in Brum was avoidable. I know the father was distracted by his phone ringing but you don't leave any gun unattended, especially when there are children about. Any parent always has to be alert to any potential danger and a parent with a gun should be 100 times more cautious.