Many people enjoy firing handguns at targets on shooting ranges. It is a legitimate sport, and subject to tighter regulations since the Dunblane massacre of 1996. There is nothing wrong, legally, with using Brocock air-cartridge guns for this activity. In fact, such is the official approval of this type of sporting pistol that they are available to anyone aged 17 and over for around £100.

However, Bradford's five MPs are right to have launched a campaign to have the law tightened even further because of the ease with which these guns can be illegally adapted to fire bullets. It is apparently a simple matter to convert a sporting gun into a deadly weapon. As Terry Rooney MP says, a system needs to be put in place which will prevent them falling into the wrong hands.

Bradford has already experienced the consequences of that happening with the shooting of taxi driver Mr Mohammed Basharat, who was gunned down with a converted Brocock, apparently after a road-rage incident. Guns of this type are said now to be widely used by organised criminals.

The MPs' call for ownership of Brococks to be subject to a licence being granted, involving checks for a criminal record, makes sense. We back it wholeheartedly as part of the T&A's ongoing Stop Gun Violence campaign which was launched in response to growing concerns about gun crime in Bradford. Anything which can be done to reduce the number of lethal weapons in circulation has to be welcomed.

A tightening of the rules governing the sale of Brococks unfortunately will not stop determined members of the underworld from acquiring guns. However it should make it more difficult by cutting off one potential source of supply.