IT looks real and even though it is plastic the 6mm BB bullet' it fires could certainly cause someone an injury, if not worse.

Yet at the North Weald Airfield market on Saturday I bought this M31 Sport Pistol for just £2, the cheapest weapon that the stall was selling.

But the Double Eagle Sport Pistol looked just as realistic as the others on sale. The box contains a warning that the gun should not be fired at humans or animals, and warns that it should not be used by anyone aged under 14.

Following our purchase and an approach by the police, market operator Hughmark International has decided to introduce a total ban on BB gun sales from January 1, at all of the 20 markets that it runs across the country.


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Hughmark International's financial director Lew Hughes told the Guardian: "We've actively been working for the past year with an MP to try and get the sale of BB guns totally banned. For us to ban them just from an event that we run doesn't achieve anything."

A Government-backed total ban is what is required, he said.

Mr Hughes added: "I'm going to meet the police and determine whether imitation firearms are being sold. If they are being sold they will be taken off sale immediately and from January 1 we will be banning BB guns from sale from every market that we run.

"I'm hoping that others will follow our lead."

Defending his decision to sell the guns, stallholder Shabam Hasan told the Guardian: "The law is that it is legal to sell them."

He said: "None of them (the ones on sale) looks real, if they did they (the market) would say don't sell them.

"If the person looks 14 and over I'll sell it to them. If they don't look 14 I will ask for a parent."

He added: "Sales have gone down in the last few years, demand has gone down. There are so many different people selling them."

Epping police crime reduction officer Tony Ellis told the Guardian: "We've spoken to the market. We're going to meet the management and speak to the traders involved and they will be instructed to remove any BB gun that could be considered to be an imitation firearm from their displays.

"Furthermore the market has agreed that as from January 1 itwill have a policy whereby no BB guns will be allowed to be sold."

He added: "Unfortunately as the present law stands these guns are classed as non-lethal and fall outside the Firearms Act.

"A less responsible person could sell these to a five-year-old but the police and Hughmark feel it is time to make a stand and ban them from the market whether they are lawful or not.

"We appreciate the responsible stance that Hughmark International is taking in making this policy."

Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing is "disappointed" that BB guns were on sale at the market and said: "We must look at the possibility of banning them."

"It isn't good to encourage children to play with toy guns, but more seriously we have seen tragic cases recently where the police have understandably but mistakenly thought that somebody was threatening them with a real gun and where they had to take action in shooting in self defence.

"The knee jerk reaction to an issue like this is to say these guns should be banned but how do you make such a law, would we ban all gun-shaped items?

"No, that would be overprescriptive so in the first instance we ought to ask people to act responsibly and not to buy these items and not to sell them. I'm sure market traders could sell something more worthwhile than £2 plastic guns."

As the stallholder handed me my carrier bag containing the gun, and gave me my change, he asked when I thought the sale of such weapons would banned.

Given the developments following our purchase on Saturday, and the prompt actions of Hughmark International, I guess the answer will be much sooner than the stallholder may have thought.