MISUSED airguns are a menace to society and stricter rules on their use should be employed immediately, according to Jonathan Shaw, Labour MP for Chatham and Aylesford.

Mr Shaw has been campaigning for tighter air weapon controls and put forward a 10-minute rule bill in Parliament last week demanding that changes be made.

Mr Shaw said: "I have campaigned on this issue for a year. Since actively pushing for changes I have been inundated with letters from all over the UK which point to an alarming increase in the number of unprovoked airgun attacks."

Ideally, the MP would like to see a complete ban on unsupervised airgun use by the under-17s. At the moment it is legal for children as young as 14 to use the weapons alone.

Mr Shaw added: "Put simply, misused air weapons are a menace to society."