PARENTS who want their little ones to be "armed" to the milk-teeth can still find an arsenal of realistic looking toy guns all over Bolton.

Despite a publish backlash against "aggressive" toys which persuaded even giants like Woolworths to stop selling them, a whole range of plastic and die-cast metal guns can still be bought in the town.

They range from James Bond pistols -- complete with silencer -- to American Colt .45 revolvers from around £2 to £6.

There was a wide choice on display when the BEN did a snap survey of toy shops and stalls around the town centre.

So just how easy is it still to buy a toy gun which at first glance could appear to be the real thing? Although some of the major stores have stopped selling look-alike guns, smaller shops and stalls still have a wide selection -- from sophisticated spy-catcher "tools" to the kind of ornate cowboy guns that kids were playing with 50 years ago.

And all the traders the BEN spoke to said they would continue to sell them as long as there was such a big demand.

All the guns we examined were obviously toys -- on close inspection. Even most of the die-cast metal ones had coloured plasticky bits that showed they were not real.

But on one, a .45 Colt model we bought for £2.99 from Bolton Market Hall, the red plastic nozzle could easily be removed.

After that was done, several shopkeepers we spoke to said they would be scared out of their wits if a robber confronted them with it -- particularly in poor light. Janet Crook, who runs Janet's Toys and Books in Ashburner Street Marker, said: "I still sell toy guns because a lot of parents still ask for them. But I won't sell any of those that actually fire a plastic pellet and could harm a child.

Janet, however, knows at first hand how toy guns can cause a panic. Her own little boy had his water pistols confiscated at the airport as the family flew on holiday!

Barny Hall, who runs Smoking and Joking at Ashburner Street, also sells toy guns. "But they are obviously toys," he said. "I also sell toy plastic swords and cricket bats and I certainly know which is the most dangerous of those if you get hit."

Catalogue company Index still sell just one gun -- a toy-like green plastic affair -- and Argos don't sell any.

Woolworths still sell a laser toy to help Darth Maul repel the Martians, but handguns are out.

A spokesman said: "Families are our core customers and we don't think toy guns have a place in our environment." Bolton peace campaigner Bertie Lewis doesn't think children should be stopped from playing with toy guns, but feels they should be made to look more obviously like toys. "They should be bright red or orange, so they can't be misused," he said.

Bolton Children's Opportunity Group chairman Annette Dodd admitted that she played cowboys and Indians when she was a child. But she said: "The world is different now and we don't encourage children to play with toy guns. We don't have any here."