Editorial Bear

This has to be the most ridiculous thing I've heard for a long time.

After a spate of brutal shootings in London, the Home Secretary decides to target - you guessed it - replica guns.

Now let me just fill you in on a little fact about replica guns. They aren't real. They don't shoot bullets. In fact, all they do is look like real guns.

No, I'm not saying replica guns are perfectly fine things to own. I'm well aware of the fact that people commit robberies with them and police accidentally shoot suspects who are holding them.

But the fact remains. Since the invention of the replica gun, the worldwide death toll from replica-gun inflicted deaths has remained at 0.

Replica guns can't kill anybody.

So when the Home Secretary is faced with a very REAL and very DANGEROUS problem of gun crime in London, it seems a pointless exercise to focus on replica guns. It seems almost like a knee-jerk reaction to a problem, intended to divert attention away from the real issue and make it look like the government's DOING something.

What I have to ask is: How stupid does John Reid think we are?