A YOUNG boy wearing his favourite football club’s new shirt plays with a mounted machine gun as an Army recruitment officer looks on with a grin.

This is the spectacle that Welsh anti-war activists tried to prevent at an event in Wrexham ahead of Armed Forced Day, which was marked across Britain yesterday. 

Members of the Wrexham Peace and Justice group maintained a “peace presence” at the event on Saturday which saw members of the Royal Welsh Regiment show young children how to fire lethal weapons.

After the group’s concerns were ignored by councillors, members stood guard with a banner reading “War is not family entertainment” and handed out leaflets to parents. 

Grandmother Joan Meredith said: “Armed Forces Day was a travesty of what I hope for the future of my grandchildren.

“Machine guns and other weapons were presented to the children as playthings. Their sole use is to kill men, women and children.”