2001
GCN collected only a very small proportion of
relevant media articles during this period
ENGLAND
Journal (Newcastle), 30 November
2001
Daniel Lumsden, 18, appeared before Gateshead
Magistrate Court charged with the airgun shooting of 15-year-old
Nicola Diston. The attack blinded Nicola in one eye. The
Newcastle Evening Chronicle launched an Airgun Control campaign.
A 23-year-old man
was jailed for 12 months after pointing an imitation pistol
at a man
in Oxford city centre.
Scotsman, 10 November
2001
Nicholas Griffith, 19, was jailed for nine months
after aiming a gun in the face of a government minister’s secretary
in Fulham, London. The weapon was a silver
pellet gun.
Guardian, 22 October 2001
A man threatened to
kill his child during a gun siege on the M4 in Wiltshire.
Guardian, 8 October 2001
A 36-year-old man
shot himself in the head in front of patrons in a Birmingham bar.
Ripley & Heanor News, 20
September 2001
15-year-old Darren Harrison underwent emergency surgery on his stomach
after being shot while walking along a public footpath. Surgeons
were unable to remove the airgun pellet which wounded him. The
police found evidence of target practice taking place on the path
which runs between a wood and open fields.
BBC,
26 July 2001
An 18-year-old was found
dead after a fatal shooting in an alleyway in the Miles
Platting area of Manchester. A
second teenager was detained in hospital with what are believed to
be bullet injuries. Three people were being interviewed by
police.
Times,
21 July 2001
Fatal shooting by police in Brixton of Derek Bennett who was
brandishing a replica handgun.
Guardian, 12 June 2001
A
Dover mother,
Patricia McCarvill, allegedly killed her son and then shot herself with an
allegedly legal shotgun.
Guardian, 5 June 2001
Ben Ellams aged 9, from Widnes was shot in the
head with an air pistol.
Middlesbrough
Gazette, May 2001
A
teenager was killed on 3
May 2001 by another
teenager using his father’s air rifle, prosecution pending.
Daryl Allison, 15, was sentenced to two years in a young offenders
institution for shooting 14-year-old Matthew Sheffield dead in
Eaglescliffe (BBC, 9 September 2002).
This is Oxfordshire, 24 April 2001
A Didcot
man was given a 15-month jail sentence after threatening a pub
doorman with an imitation gun.
This is Oxfordshire, 4 April 2001
Former soldier Thomas Joines was sentenced to six months in prison
after threatening his wife and children with a
replica Colt .45
revolver loaded with six fake bullets.
This is Bradford,
12 February
2001
A jeweller in Huddersfield was shot three
times with a converted
replica handgun.
SCOTLAND
Lennox Herald, 25 October 2001
A 15-year-old
appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court after he discharged an
imitation
gun at a householder whilst attempting to steal a motorbike in
Alexandria, Dumbartonshire.
Scotsman, 12 October 2001
Steven Wright, 15, was placed on probation in
Edinburgh for the culpable homicide of his 15-year-old stepbrother,
who was shot in the head with a rifle when Wright tripped as he was
aiming at a rabbit.
INCIDENTS INVOLVING ANIMALS
Derby Evening
Telegraph, 28 August 2001
Two young swans have been left with serious head injuries after
being shot…. An
RSPCA Inspector said ‘Two people appear to have gone and
deliberately used these swans as target practice with no regard to
the suffering they must have gone through.’
Daily Mail, 22 August 2001
In
Bakewell, Derbyshire, a black cat called Archie was found to
have 50 shotgun pellets after being shot at close range.
Miraculously the cat was saved by vets.
