TOY sellers and parents are again being warned of the dangers posed by children playing with toy guns.

One type of danger was vividly demonstrated on the front page of the Evening News this week when two small boys were "lifted" by police after causing a security scare.

The boys were merely "playing soldiers", but in a very realistic way, kitted out in full camouflage gear and carrying a realistic replica automatic weapon.

However, there are other dangers and, again, these have been identified by a number of recent stories.

We refer to the increasing popularity of so-called "ball bearing guns" among Worcester youngsters.

These fire small plastic or metal pellets and can be lethal at short range.

Shooting these weapons at targets, as they are designed to do, may be harmless enough.

But when these are aimed at people and their pets, then their use takes on a wholly different dimension.

Readers will recall our horror at the injuries inflicted on a youngster in an incident at Droitwich, and the sickening feeling felt when we reported the shooting of a pet cat.

We have said it before - and make no apology for saying it again - stop these junior maniacs before they do some real damage and we find ourselves reporting on a manslaughter, a court trial and a long sentence.

We urge all parents to ban their children from buying the guns.

We urge parents to confiscate guns already owned by children.

We urge all retailers to stop selling the replica guns.

We would hate to have to say "we told you so".