FOR years it has been plain to see that restrictions on the ownership and use of air weapons were lax.

All too often our newspaper and others have reported on incidents where people had been injured, sometimes seriously, by a pellet fired from an airgun or rifle.

We warned that, unless laws were tightened, it may be only a matter of time before someone was killed.

Had those warnings been heeded, Matthew Sheffield may be alive today.

Tragically, he is not. He lost his life because a teenager was able to get hold of a gun and fire a pellet into his head.

We fully endorse the comments made yesterday by Judge Peter Fox in calling for gun laws to be tightened.

The Government must listen to what the judge has had to say, and act swiftly.

The present restrictions on air weapons are insufficient. Existing controls appear to assume that these weapons are toys. As the death of Matthew Sheffield clearly demonstrates, they are not toys. They are lethal weapons.

These guns need to be licensed and kept under lock and key.

No cheques without balances

THE shambolic state of our railway network highlights the danger of placing vital public services under private control.

The desperate financial state in which British Energy finds itself calls into question the wisdom of future privatisations.

Surely, the headlong rush with which Railtrack directors, and now the board of British Energy, seek hand-outs from the Treasury to stay in business demonstrates the inability of such utilities to survive in the rough-and-tumble of the market economy.

The Government has had little choice but to bail out British Energy. The prospect of leaving our nuclear power industry to crumble cannot be contemplated.

But ministers must not write blank cheques. Support must be matched by collaboration on the future direction of the industry.

And they must examine why British Energy finds itself in such a mess, and hold to account those responsible for its decline.

We must not forget that the directors who went to the Treasury with the begging bowl are the same directors who, a few weeks ago, rewarded shareholders with a dividend payment.