The parents of a toddler who died after being hit with an airgun pellet joined Glasgow North East by-election hopeful Tommy Sheridan on the campaign trail on Wednesday.

Sharon Morton – the mother of murdered Andrew Morton - spoke of the "promise" she made at her son's graveside to ban the public sale of the weapons.

Andrew was just two-years-old when he died after being hit on the head with an airgun pellet near his home in the Easterhouse area of Glasgow in March 2005.

The shot was fired by drug addict Mark Bonini, who is now serving a life sentence after being found guilty of murdering the child.

On Wednesday, his parents Andy and Sharon renewed their call for airguns to be banned from general sale to protect other parents from "going through what we have been through".

Tommy Sheridan, the Solidarity candidate, is calling on the other candidates to back the campaign and take the issue to Westminster, out of "respect" for the toddler's memory.

The Mortons have campaigned tirelessly for the ban since their son's death nearly five years ago. Mrs Morton said: "The sooner we get the ban the sooner we can save our kids.

"We won't stop until we do win - that's the promise we made our son on the day we buried him - we'll keep fighting until we get the ban."

Andy Morton said the proposed ban would "stop somebody else going through what we've been through".

"Five years is nothing to us. We are going for a goal and we are just going to make sure we get it."

Mr Sheridan spoke of how he had been "moved and touched" by the death of the Andrew Morton and his parents' commitment to removing airguns from the street.

The then MSP said he went on to introduce a Bill to ban the public sale of airguns into the Scottish Parliament in 2006 after he learned of the Mortons' campaign, and was told any change in the law would have to be passed through Westminster.

He said: "It is always hard for Andy and Sharon to continually be reminded that these weapons are for general public sale and it was a weapon like this that tragically claimed the life of their toddler in March of 2005," he said.

"Since then they have turned their grief into a ferocious commitment to make sure no other parent goes through the same trauma and the same tears that has ripped them apart over the past five years by trying to secure a ban on the general sale of airguns on the basis that it is unjustifiable to have weapons like this on general sale.

"This is a Westminster by-election," he said. "Airguns are the responsibility of the Westminster Parliament and that is why the campaign to ban airguns is so vital and so important as a part of this by-election campaign."

The candidates who will contest the Glasgow North East by-election are:

Charlie Baillie, British National Party
Willie Bain, Scottish Labour Party
Eileen Baxendale, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Mev Brown, Independent
Colin Campbell, The Individuals Labour and Tory (TILT)
Ruth Davidson, Scottish Conservative and Unionist
David Doherty, Scottish Green Party
Mikey Hughes
David Kerr, Scottish National Party (SNP)
Louise McDaid, Socialist Labour Party
Kevin McVey, Scottish Socialist Party – Make Greed History
Tommy Sheridan, Solidarity – Scotland’s Socialist Movement
John David Smeaton, Jury Team

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