VIDEO: Children warned: Don’t use knives! (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

VIDEO: Children warned: Don’t use knives!

6:45pm Friday 26th June 2009 in Local Video By Will Kilner

Children in the district have been told they could be killed, scarred for life or jailed for several years if they carry a knife or gun.

PC Rory Romani, an armed response officer for West Yorkshire Police, delivered a hard-hitting presentation to pupils at Holy Family Catholic School, Keighley, to launch the Think Life, Not Knife weapon awareness campaign.

PC Romani explained how the police’s Firearms Support Unit respond to armed incidents, be it an armed robbery, a report of someone carrying a knife or someone waving around a ball-bearing gun in a threatening manner.

He told the children: “If you are armed, it won’t be my unarmed colleagues who are coming to see you – it will be us. Today we are going to see some weapons that we would be coming with to deal with you.”

PC Romani showed the children a baton gun and a taser weapon, both considered to be “less than lethal”, before showing them the lethal guns used by armed response police He said officers only had a fraction of a second to decide if a gun was real or imitation and had to assume that most guns were real until the person was disarmed.

He added that people who armed themselves with knives as a means of defence risked having their weapons grabbed off them during conflicts with other members of the public and being stabbed with their own knife.

“Taking a knife out for protection doesn’t work” warned PC Romani.

The children were shown images from armed operations carried out by West Yorkshire Police and other footage, including an interview with the parents of Rhys Jones, used on Crimewatch in an appeal after the youngster was killed in Liverpool.

Rebecca Barrett, 14, said: “It was very well put together and I learnt a lot from it.” Denshia Chelladurai, 14, said: “It was really educational and taught me a lot about not playing around with guns and knives.”

Eileen Quayle, subject leader for physical health and social education (PHSE) and citizenship at Holy Family, said: “In keeping with the national policy of Every Child Matters – we as a school are aiming to educate and equip our students with knowledge about the risks and results of gun and knife crime which is prevalent throughout the country.”