Children as young as nine have been issued shotgun licences by Sussex Police.

Figures released by the police show that over the last two years they issued more than 400 licences for shotguns and firearms to young people aged between nine and 17 - more than any other Force in the UK.

Four of the 356 shotgun licences were issued to nine-year-olds and three went to ten-year-olds.

The permits allow holders to own potentially-lethal weapons as powerful as 12-bore semi-automatic shotguns also let them own .22 rifles, .234 rifles, .410 pistols and .410 shotguns, all after a brief police interview and a series of security checks.

A further 20 were issued to 11-year-olds, 20 to 12-year-olds, 32 to 13-year-olds, 65 to 14-year-olds, 60 to 15-year-olds, 83 to 16-year-olds and 69 to 17-year-olds.

A spokesman for Sussex Police said: "It's not as alarming as it sounds. The figures reflect the fact that Sussex is a rural county with a shooting and hunting tradition. For farmers and young people living in the countryside, engaging in rural pursuits, it's the correct way to teach them how to use a gun responsibly and to license it from an early age."

Duncan Curd, corporate manager of the Southdown Sporting Gun Club in Findon, near Worthing, welcomed the news that so many youngsters were taking up shooting as a sport.

He said that his club had many young members in the under-16s 'colts' age range for shooting competitions as well as plenty in the juniors and seniors classes.

He said: "We have young shooters here in Sussex who are great role models for sport.

"A lot of schools have shooting in their curriculum and I think it's excellent because they actually learn to appreciate what a gun can do in the right circumstances.

"It's a sport that everyone in the family can try and there's no reason that it should be associated with anything other than a pleasure in sport.

"People tend to trash our sport by assuming that guns are all the same and people go out shooting each other regardless of what they have got.

"It's very rare that sporting guns are used in illegal activity. The vast majority of guns used in robberies, violence or other crimes are illegally held weapons.

"In competitive shooting and in clubs, everything is very well controlled.

"We have been on this site for 20 years and we've not had a single accident with a gun."

But with an EU law banning anyone under the age of 18 from owning a gun on the horizon, shooting as a sport for young people appears to be on borrowed time.

Not yet UK law, the European legislation may not arrive on our shores until 2010, leaving British children free to own a shotgun nine years before they can legally smoke or drink alcohol.

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