Shocking figures show Britain's gun-toting culture is spreading to under-10s

Police in the UK have caught 47 children under ten carrying guns in the past three years – but could give them only warnings because they are too young for prosecution.

They were seized with pistols, air rifles and imitation guns that had been converted into real weapons. In the same period, 127 under-tens were caught with knives.

The trend was described as outrageous by Shadow Home Secretary David Davis. He said: "These shocking figures show that Labour's failure to tackle violent crime and its causes – such as drugs and family breakdown – is betraying our young people to lives of misery.

"It is outrageous that Britain's tragic epidemic of gun and knife crime is reaching our primary schools to such an extent."

The figures were revealed by 34 police forces under Freedom of Information laws. Seven forces did not supply data.

Cumbria Police had the greatest number of offenders, with 13 under-tens caught in possession of a firearm.

Northamptonshire Police were the only force to provide details of incidents.

• In 2006 an eight-year-old stole his father's 'ball-bearing' gun and shot a passer-by several times in the leg. • In 2005, a nine-year-old was found with a lock knife during a stop-and-search in Northampton town centre.

• In another case, a boy aged eight was reprimanded after attacking a group of children with a pen knife.

The statistics heap pressure on a Government whose policies on gun and knife crime have come under intense scrutiny.

Since the beginning of 2007, there have been almost 40 fatal shootings and stabbings of children in London alone. And last week, a 17-year old was charged with the murder of Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old boy shot dead in a Liverpool car park last year.

At a gun crime summit at Downing Street last year, senior police officers told the then Home Secretary John Reid that youngsters as young as eight were being forced to carry guns for older gang members seeking to escape prosecution themselves.

In September last year, it emerged that almost 3,000 crimes were committed by children under ten.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We know that when young people carry weapons, they do so largely out of fear. We are working on a new £1million marketing campaign aimed at challenging the glamour, fear and peer pressure that can drive youngsters to crime."