Gun crime in Britain rises to record level

1.00pm - By JASON BENNETTO and NIGEL MORRIS

Gun crime in the UK has risen to a record level while violent offences recorded by the police have increased by 11 per cent, new figures revealed yesterday.

Firearms offences rose by three per cent to 10,590 in the year to June 2004 compared with the same period the previous year.

Concerns about the emerging gun culture in Britain were highlighted by the drive-by shooting earlier this month of 14-year-old Danielle Beccan in Nottingham and the injury to a one-year-old who was shot in London.

Although the number of people shot dead has dropped from 82 to 70 in the past year, there was a big jump in minor injuries and in the use of imitation and replica guns.

David Blunkett announced yesterday that many of the lessons learned from the Metropolitan Police's successful Trident operation against "black on black" shootings are to be adopted in Manchester, West Midlands and Nottinghamshire.

On the positive front over-all crime is continuing to fall with a 5 per cent drop in the number of offences recorded by the police to 1,447,400 in the second quarter of this year, compared with the same three months in 2003.

Among those figures there was a remarkable 23 per cent decline in domestic burglaries and a 15 per cent fall in robbery.

But the figures for gun crime show that, although the rapid rise in firearm offences appears to have reached a plateau following numerous police operations and tough new prison sentences, it is still going up.

Of the 10,590 recorded firearms crimes, only 500 involved death or serious injury, with nearly 8,000 resulting in no injury at all.

The most commonly used firearm is the handgun, including converted weapons, which were used in nearly half the crimes. The number of imitation and replica guns shot up by about a third to 2,560.

Within the category of violent crime there was a 14 per cent leap in offences of violence against the person - a total of 265,800 incidents from April to June compared with 265,800 in the same period last year.

It also emerged that more serious violent offences, including homicide and serious wounding, rose by 16 per cent to 12,000 offences.

About half of all violent crime does not result in an injury, and includes things like pushing and shoving.

However, the British Crime Survey, which includes offences not recorded by the police and is considered to be the most accurate study, found that violent crime fell by 6pc in the past year.

Mr Blunkett, the Home Secretary, yesterday refused to predict when violent crime would fall as he announced fresh action to tackle firearms-related offences.

There would be fresh efforts to involve local communities in combating the problem of gun crime, as well as a drive to break the link between crack cocaine and firearms.

He said: "We have a situation where crack and guns go together and because crack is a dangerous drug that stimulates violence."

Although he said the statistics were an "irrefutable" indication that crime overall was dropping, he acknowledged: "There is an issue about violent crime, so let's take it head-on. We're going to target those areas of the country and those particular neighbourhoods where violent crime is being and has caused concern."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said: "Today's increase in firearm offences is totally unacceptable and shows that last week's tragic shooting of Danielle Beccan is not just an isolated incident.

"The Government is still not doing enough to stem the flow of guns on to the streets of our towns and cities. We need a national border force to stop these weapons reaching the UK in the first place."

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, added that increasing violent crime was "a consequence of the Government's failure to deal with the drink and drug problem blighting this country".

- INDEPENDENT