The Evening Gazette’s Ban Young Guns is continuing at the highest level – despite major steps forward in the past 12 months.

The Teesside paper has helped secure legislation to take lethal air rifles out of the hands of young people, with the change of law potentially saving lives.

The campaign was launched after a 14-year-old suffered fatal head injuries while shooting with friends.

And a year on, Teesside MP Dari Taylor is taking the fight further, in her new job at the Home Office fighting street crime.

The original aim of Ban Young Guns was to push for a ban on the possession of airguns by under 18s and bring in new licensing laws.

The Anti-Social Behaviour Bill has raised the age at which youngsters can own an airgun from 14 to 17, but a late change meant they could still use them on private land with the landowner’s permission.

The MP is pressing for Government agreement to ban the use of air weapons by anyone under 17.

She said: “The Evening Gazette has kept the issue alive and ensured that we have Cleveland Police with us.

“I am going to my first meeting with Home Office Minister Hazel Blears armed with two Gazette articles, one of them is about how airguns have destroyed a family.”

The battle for a ban:

March 13 2003: The Evening Gazette’s Ban Young Guns campaign was on its way to the Statute Book.
January 14 2003: Euro MP David Bowe took a copy of our dossier containing your petitions for a change in the law on the lethal weapons, to Brussels, in the autumn.
January 10 2003: The Home Secretary praised the Gazette’s successful Ban Young Guns campaign.
January 9 2003: Home Secretary David Blunkett announced tough restrictions on the ownership of air weapons.
January 6 2003: Home Secretary David Blunkett was urged by Stockton South MP Dari Taylor to include air weapons in his new crackdown on guns.
November 13 2002: Tony Blair’s Government was promising to bring in new regulations governing who can own and use such weapons.
October 29 2002: An air weapons Bill was presented to the House of Commons.
September 11 2002: Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth spoke in detail about his thinking on airgun control after Mr Blair made him personally responsible for the issue in an open letter to the Gazette.
September 4 2002: Prime Minister Tony Blair personally replied to the Evening Gazette’s Ban Young Guns petition, in a letter to editor Steve Dyson.
August 30 2002: Three Teesside MPs took the case to the Prime Minister’s front door and vowed to continue demanding legislation.
August 24 2002: Mark and Wendy Sheffield, parents of a 14-year-old boy shot dead with an airgun, backed calls for a change in the law.
August 22 2002: Plans were announced for the campaign to go to the House of Commons next month, where a Press conference is to be staged.
July 29 2002: Evening Gazette editor Steve Dyson gave a file on the Ban Young Guns campaign to Prime Minister Tony Blair when he visited the paper’s newsroom.
July 27 2002: David Bowe, Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber Region, added his name to the Gazette’s petition.
July 10 2002: The campaign received the backing of Home Secretary David Blunkett.
July 5 2002: Cleveland Police Authority backed the Gazette’s campaign.
July 3 2002: The first rush of signatures flooded in as hundreds of people signed the petition published in the Gazette.
June 28 2002: The Gazette launched the Ban Young Guns Campaign.

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