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The battle for a ban
June 28 2002: The Gazette launched the Ban Young Guns Campaign.
July 3 2002: The first rush of signatures flooded in as hundreds of people signed the petition published in the Gazette.
July 5 2002: Cleveland Police Authority backed the Gazette's campaign.
July 10 2002: The campaign received the backing of Home Secretary David Blunkett.
July 27 2002: David Bowe, Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber Region, added his name to the Gazette's petition.
July 29 2002: Evening Gazette editor Steve Dyson gave a file on the Ban Young Guns campaign to Prime Minister Tony Blair when he visited the paper's newsroom.
August 22 2002: Plans were announced for the campaign to go to the House of Commons next month, where a Press conference is to be staged.
August 24 2002: Mark and Wendy Sheffield, parents of a 14-year-old boy shot dead with an airgun, backed calls for a change in the law.
August 30 2002: Three Teesside MPs took the case to the Prime Minister's front door and vowed to continue demanding legislation.
September 4 2002: Prime Minister Tony Blair personally replied to the Evening Gazette's Ban Young Guns petition, in a letter to editor Steve Dyson.
September 11 2002: Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth spoke in detail about his thinking on airgun control after Mr Blair made him personally responsible for the issue in an open letter to the Gazette.
October 29 2002: An air weapons Bill was presented to the House of Commons.
November 13 2002: Tony Blair's Government was promising to bring in new regulations governing who can own and use such weapons.
January 6 2003: Home Secretary David Blunkett was urged by Stockton South MP Dari Taylor to include air weapons in his new crackdown on guns.
January 9 2003: Home Secretary David Blunkett announced tough restrictions on the ownership of air weapons.
January 10 2003: The Home Secretary praised the Gazette's successful Ban Young Guns campaign.
January 14 2003: Euro MP David Bowe took a copy of our dossier containing your petitions for a change in the law on the lethal weapons, to Brussels, in the autumn.
March 13 2003: The Evening Gazette's Ban Young Guns campaign was on its way to the Statute Book.
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The Gazette's Ban Young Guns campaign is celebrating its first anniversary. During that time there has been significant success in taking lethal air rifles out of the hands of young people. But the campaign continues - at the highest level. It's not an understatement to say the impact of Ban Young Guns has been massive. Laws are being changed that will save lives. And that will serve as a fitting tribute to a Teesside teenager whose death provoked national outrage - and the collective will to have guns taken from the hands of our children. The Gazette launched the campaign after a rise in the number of airgun incidents involving young people - including the death of Eaglescliffe teenager Matthew Sheffield. Matthew died after he was shot in the head as he played with friends in Eaglescliffe one Sunday afternoon in April 2001. The 14-year-old, from Clifton Avenue, was with friends who were understood to have been using the air rifle for target practice. He suffered fatal head injuries when he was shot by one of the group. His death was shocking, as was the notion that more children might be treating airguns as playthings on our streets. There was a groundswell of opinion that laws must be changed. A year on and they are changing. And now Teesside MP Dari Taylor, whose Stockton South constituency includes the Sheffield family from Eaglescliffe, is taking the fight further. She has a new role at the Home Office as of this week and her first meeting in her new job fighting street crime will see her armed with articles from the Evening Gazette. The MP is celebrating her new role of Parliamentary Private Secretary to new Home Office Minister Hazel Blears, tackling the nitty gritty of street crime - including airguns. The aim of our campaign was to push for a ban on the possession of airguns by under-18s and bring in new laws to licence the sale of air weapons and restrict access to ammunition. Last month we reached an important milestone in the campaign. The House of Commons voted through the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill on June 24 and it will now progress to the Lords. This means the age that a person can own an airgun will go up from 14 to 17. But a late concession by the Home Office has dismayed campaigners pressing for the weapons to be taken out of young hands. Under amendments from Home Secretary David Blunkett, those aged between 14 and 17 will still be allowed airguns on private land - provided they have the landowner's permission. Following Matthew's death, Daryl Allison, 14, of Croft Road, Eaglescliffe, began a two-year detention in September last year after being convicted of the manslaughter of his friend with a .22 rifle. Matthew's parents Mark and Wendy have always pledged their support to the Gazette's Ban Young Guns campaign. Mr Sheffield said at the time of Allison's sentence: "For any lad that age guns are exciting and attractive. "We know no matter how much education and training you give, a child is not capable of using a weapon sensibly, carefully. "Now we just want the Government to act and take guns out of the hands of children." Stockton South MP Dari Taylor, who has been one of the leading campaigners for tougher laws, had been pressing the Government to agree to ban the use of air weapons by anyone under 17. Mrs Taylor said: "We cannot underestimate the influence of the media. I am going to my first meeting as PPS to Hazel Blears armed with two Gazette articles, one of them is about how airguns have destroyed a family. "The Evening Gazette has kept the issue alive and ensured that we have Cleveland Police with us. "I like the fact that you can't buy or carry an airgun until you are over 17 but my main point is that the incident that happened in my constituency occurred in a private garden in Eaglescliffe and there is no guarantee under the current law that that wouldn't happen again. "There is now going to be a review of all of the gun legislation. "The reality is that these airguns, even in the most innocent of hands, have a lethal potential." She has renewed her call for all airguns to be licensed. "If all airguns are licensed then their owners can be held legally responsible for any death, damage or injury resulting from their misuse," she said. "That knowledge would force owners to be more responsible about where their airguns are kept and how they are used." Among those to applaud our fight to take airguns out of the hands of under-18s was Lord Falconer - the Home Office Minister for Criminal Justice, Sentencing and Law Reform. Teesside MPs also threw their Westminster weight into the ring as well as Cleveland Police and thousands of readers. Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Ashok Kumar described the Gazette's fight for change as "brilliant" when addressing MPs considering the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill in April this year. Describing the Evening Gazette's Ban Young Guns campaign for tighter gun control as "laudable", Judge Peter Fox QC has also added his voice to the cause. He said: "Such legislation is urgently needed." | 
