A ban on making or selling replica firearms will leave officers in Oxfordshire with more time to deal with life-threatening incidents involving real guns, say Thames Valley Police.

Chief Constable Peter Neyroud has welcomed legislation proposed by the Government yesterday to outlaw imitation guns.

The Violent Crime Reduction Bill contained stringent new laws, including a ban on the making or selling of replica guns.

Chief Insp Robin Gardner with a police-issue Glock 17 It also promised to bring in tougher sentences for carrying imitation guns and introduce tougher manufacturing standards to prevent imitations being converted to fire real ammunition.

The age limit for buying or firing an air weapon without supervision will be raised from 17 to 18 and it will be an offence to use other people to hide or carry guns or knives.

The Bill also proposes increasing the age limit for buying a knife from 16 to 18 and includes powers for headteachers to carry out random searches of children they suspect of having weapons in schools

Mr Neyroud said most deployments of armed officers are to incidents involving imitation firearms, particularly BB (ball bearing) guns and air weapons.

He added: "The vast majority of these deployments resulted in the seizure of BB guns.

"The average age of the owner being just 15, they have no intention of using the gun for a criminal purpose.

"I urge parents to think carefully about whether it is appropriate for their children to be in possession of these so-called toys."

Mr Neyroud said: "When our armed response vehicles are dealing with an incident involving an imitation firearm, they're not available to respond to a live firearms incident.

"Tactical support officers have to deal with any call to a firearm as if it is a live weapon, and this places anyone in possession of a replica, BB or air gun in a position of risk," he added.

Chief Insp Robin Gardner, head of the force's tactical firearms group, warned: "Any gun at a distance looks like a real gun to a member of the public and even to a trained firearms officer."

Earlier this year Richard Bottley, 37, of Buttercup Square, Greater Leys, Oxford, was jailed for six months for waving a toy pistol at youths.

His family and friends criticised the sentence, saying he was protecting himself after he was terrorised by boys with baseball bats.

In December 2004 two men from Oxfordshire were arrested after fake handguns, hand grenades, CS spray and an electric stun gun was found by police.

In the year to March, officers in Thames Valley seized 27 lethal weapons, including revolvers, rifles and shotguns, the same number as in 2003/04.

They seized 76 "less lethal" weapons, including 31 BB guns, 14 replica guns and eight toys last year, compared with 38 in 2003/04.

Officers also seized eight offensive weapons, including stun guns, swords and machetes, compared with six in 2003/04.