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More Air Rifle abuse in N.Ireland
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30-08-2006 10:42am#1From the BBC:Air rifle shootings 'are linked'
Police are hunting for the person thought to have shot two teenagers with an air rifle in County Londonderry.
The 16-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy were struck in separate attacks in Portstewart on Sunday.
Detectives believe the incidents are linked and fear that the person could strike again.
The girl was near a bandstand when a pellet struck her on the leg, while the boy was also shot in the leg at about the same time in The Crescent area.
The shootings took place at about 2240 BST on Sunday.
The injured boy, Daniel Kelso, was walking along the promenade with friends when the attack happened.
He said: "I felt a stinging pain in the back of my leg - I thought it was a ball-bearing or paintball.
"Later, people were saying I was bleeding.
"We then decided to get the police - they took me up to hospital and found out it was a slug from an air rifle."
His father, John, said the pellet had been deeply embedded in Daniel's leg, and such a shooting could have had very serious consequences.
"Two of Daniel's friends were sitting at the time and their heads were level with where Daniel was hit," he said.
"If that had missed Daniel, they could have got hit in the face.
"(The pellet) is two-and-a-half inches deep into Daniel's leg. If that had hit somebody in the right place, it could have killed them."
"It wasn't a toy - these are quite lethal weapons and can cause serious injury," he said.
"We would appeal for the person to come forward and surrender their weapon to police.
"We have stepped up patrols in the area and we would ask visitors and residents alike to be vigilant."
Local gun dealer Ivor Cowan said although strict guidelines for owning air rifles were in place, some people may find other ways to get hold of such weapons.
"There must be a loophole - certainly there must be air rifles coming in off the internet or auction sites or such like," he said.
"It's something that the gun trade, the PSNI and the Northern Ireland Office must look at together."
Hope they catch whatever toerag is doing this. That kind of thing does noone any good at all, let alone the dangerous nature of it. You'd imagine people would remember what happened only last year when people abuse airguns like this.0
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