Gun-related crime kills, maims and intimidates. It's frequently linked to street gang activities, not to mention the UK's illegal drugs trade. It is a cancer that, left unchecked, could tear the very fabric of our society apart.

Those readers of SMT who regularly log on at the Home Office's web site will be told not to worry. Gun crime in the UK is very low, you see, accounting for less than 0.5% of all crime recorded by the police service. Then you'll notice a quaint set of statistics suggesting that, for the year ending 31 March 2005, there was a 16% reduction in the use of handguns and a 9% drop in robberies involving firearms deployment.

The real facts of the matter are this. The number of overall offences involving firearms has been increasing every year since 1997, while crimes committed with the help of imitation weaponry soared by 55% between 2004 and 2005 alone.

In response, the Government has introduced a minimum five-year jail sentence for people convicted of possessing an illegal firearm. Fine, but with the sentencing system fast becoming a joke, is that any real deterrent?

Prime Minister Blair and his Cabinet have also pledged to target immitation firearms by creating tougher manufacturing standards such that fakes cannot be converted to fire live rounds. Sounds good. Delivery date?

Meanwhile, supplies of illegal firearms to the UK are said to have been "tightened" due to enhanced security on importation routes. We only have the Government's word on this one, but there hasn't been much in the way of truth emanating from the Cabinet just lately. Where's the proof?

The Gun Control Network has castigated many journalists for suggesting that gun crime is "rocketing out of control". While this statement may be an exaggeration, try telling the good people of Nottingham - or ‘Gun City', as it has now been aptly dubbed - that firerarms misuse isn't a major deal.

Back in 2003, Norman Brennan - director of the Victims of Crime Trust, a serving policeman and not a journalist - argued that gun crime was out of control. "Never have police officers been so powerless to combat crime. We are forever shackled by political correctness, red tape and bureaucracy, and now have to act more like secretaries or social workers."

Shouldn't we be listening to comments such as these rather than those of the pc brigade? How does the Labour slogan go? ‘Tough on Crime. Tough on the Causes of Crime'. If only.

Source

SMT

Postscript

Brian Sims, Editor