From: "Charles Parker", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
THE ECONOMIST AUGUST 12TH 2000
Gun use
Smoking barrels
Is a gun culture taking root in Britain?
IT WAS the kind of thing you might expect in Dodge City, but not in Slough.
On August 3rd, as three defendants stood in the dock of a magistrate court
in Slough (a small townjust outside London) a gang of gun-toting men
swaggered in. They fired into the ceiling, sent officials and lawyers diving
for cover, and freed two of the accused. Together, they sped off, reportedly
shooting into the air as they went.
The audacity of the crime was startling. Although police quickly found the
getaway car and arrested one of the two men who had been sprung, the escape
emphasised the easy availability of guns. It also showed the willingness of
even small-time crooks�the defendants faced charges of burglary�to make use
of them. A few days earlier in Peckham in south London, a shooting outside
�Chicago�s� nightclub wounded five women and three men. This attack, and
several others in south London, have been blamed on competition between
rival drug gangs. All these incidents have sparked talk of a new �gun
culture� in Britain.
Since a shooting in Dunblane in Scotland in 1996, when a gunman killed 16
children and their teacher, private ownership of handguns above .22 calibre
has been banned in Britain. Self-loading and pump action shotguns are also
prohibited. Groups dedicated to gun control describe Britain�s laws as the
world�s �gold standard�, noting that the country�s regulations are among the
toughest anywhere. An amnesty following the Dunblane killings also saw some
200,000 guns of different sorts handed in from private homes, though many
more are thought to be held illegally.
Have these tighter laws achieved their aim of reducing the amount of gun
crime? Despite the recent incidents, the figures suggest that they have.
Offences involving firearms (not counting airguns) dropped from 5,209 in
1996 to 3,143 last year, with a particular decline in the use of guns for
robbery. The number of murders where a gun was used also declined, from an
average of 62 a year in England and Wales in the three years before tougher
gun laws were introduced in 1997, to 54 a year on average since then. (In
comparison there were 32436 deaths due to gun violence in America in 1997,of
which 13,252 were murders.)
But although there has been a general decline in the number of crimes
committed using guns, there has been an increase in the sub-set of crimes
called �guns used for violence against the person.� These have risen
steadily from 1,206 in 1995 to 1,746 offences last year. A House of Commons
committee report earlier this year noted �a generally increasing trend in
the misuse of firearms� and recommending that tighter (and simpler) laws be
considered.
Giving evidence to that committee, the Home Office also suggested that
�amongst criminals, the carrying of a gun and willingness to use it to
resolve conflicts is a sign of status and a means of gaining respect.� That,
says the government, is in part because of the depiction of guns in the
media which tempts the �weak-minded�. But it is also thought to be aculture
imported by criminals who have arrived from more violent parts of the world,
such as the Caribbean. In particular, gangs such as the Yardies (those
linked with Jamaican criminals and smugglers of drugs from the Caribbean to
Britain), use guns to settle disputes and to protect their share of the
illegal drugs market. Gangs with no connection to the Yardies, but with
similar practices,operate in most of Britain�s larger cities.
Black communities especially have endured a recent increase in violence
between gangs. A permanent unit in the Metropolitan Police, Operation
Trident, was set up last month to fight gun crime in London. In particular
the unit of 160 officers will target those who murder and shoot within black
communities, mainly gangs. Evidently there is a need for such a unit. Dave
Cox, a spokesman for it, says that, despite �a huge barrier of fear�, the
public has responded with an overwhelming amount of information, reflecting
the �climate of tension created in the community by the violence".
Drug money and gang warfare have driven demand for weapons; smuggled guns
from Eastern Europe have helped to provide the supply. Pump action shotguns
and automatic weapons are available on the black market, and are carried by
some criminals. But handguns are increasingly popular, and when used prove
to be more likely to cause death or serious injury than other sorts of guns.
Pistols can be bought for a few hundred pounds from underworld dealers, some
even build their own or �reactivate� guns which had previously been
disabled. Britain�s criminals have little trouble getting hold of guns, if
they want them.
---------
It is rather sad that a publication such as the Economist can get so many of
the basic facts so wrong.
The quote that our gun regulations are the world's 'gold standard' seems to
be gaining currency <G> amongst the 'antis' and B Liar . The gold standard
was abandoned in September 1931. Hopefully history will repeat itself.
--
The bit about the crime rate falling as a result of the handgun ban is
nonsense, armed robbery has been in a steep decline since 1994 because
of target hardening, much stiffer sentences, and the flying squad.
Also to say there were "54" murders "on average" based on two (or
possibly one) years worth of statistics is obviously bogus. The rise
in offences of violence against the person also predates the handgun
ban.
The author also appears to not have even a vague understanding
of the current gun laws.
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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