Amazing -- It seems that some folks in the United Kingdom want to fight crime by banning fake guns (and making it harder to buy knives):
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4434269
Blair Promises Crackdown on Knife and Gun Crime
By Trevor Mason, PA Political Staff
Tough new powers to tackle the use of knives and guns were unveiled by Labour today as fresh figures showed violent crime rose 9% in the final three months of last year.
The Prime Minister joined Home Secretary Charles Clarke in announcing a 10-point plan to “fight back against thugs†and cut crime overall by 15%.
But later Mr Blair was involved in a heated phone-in exchange with a police officer, who lambasted him over the number of officers on the beat.
Labour pledged that a new Violent Crime Reduction Bill, would be introduced within weeks of a General Election victory.
It will include tougher sentences for knife and gun crime, raise the age at which a young person can buy a knife from 16 to 18 and make it illegal to buy an imitation firearm below the age of 18.
Ministers plan to consult on the feasibility of banning replica and imitation guns altogether and set up a Gun Crime Hotline for people to raise worries about gangs using guns to intimidate communities.
Under the crime crackdown, hooligans responsible for anti-social behaviour would be publicly named and shamed so local people knew who was responsible for any trouble.
Mr Blair promised to ensure a “visible uniformed presence†in every community by adding to record police numbers with 20,000 extra community support officers by 2008.
“On any basis, crime has fallen since we came to office,†Mr Blair said. “Yet we know that for many people in local communities it doesn’t feel like that.â€
Mr Clarke told a news conference: “The fight against crime, and particularly violent crime and anti-social behaviour, is a number one priority for Labour.
“It is under a Labour Government that overall crime has fallen by 30% and violent crime by 26% but of course we want this to fall further.
“That is why we commit to reducing all crime by a further 15% and within that to ensure that violent crime continues to fall.â€
But Conservative leader Michael Howard rejected any claims of a fall in violent crime, insisting: “The police’s own figures demonstrate with absolute clarity that violent crime has been increasing very fast under this Government.â€
And a police officer, who claimed his job was getting increasingly harder, criticised the Government’s record on a phone-in for BBC Radio 5 Live.
The officer, who identified himself only as Carl, from Boston, Lincolnshire, asked: “Why is it that you continually make my job harder by telling the general public that there are more police officers than there has ever been, when for every police officer you have put in the rank and file on the street, you have probably put another four in offices ?â€
Mr Blair responded: “I speak to a lot of police officers, Carl, who don’t actually share that perspective and who actually believe that they are getting on top of the crime situation, difficult though it is.â€
Earlier at the news conference, the Prime Minister got into hot water after appearing to suggest crime was less violent during the era when the notorious Kray twins ruled London’s East End.
Speaking of today’s drug gangs, he said “when you watch the films back in the 1950s about this type of criminal there were certainly rules or a code that even some of those people seemed to have – it was not of the same nature as some of the really appalling ugly violent crime that you get today linked with drugs.â€
Challenged later, however, he said: “I’d better issue a correction. No, I’m notbeing nostalgic for the era of the Krays.â€
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http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4434269
Blair Promises Crackdown on Knife and Gun Crime
By Trevor Mason, PA Political Staff
Tough new powers to tackle the use of knives and guns were unveiled by Labour today as fresh figures showed violent crime rose 9% in the final three months of last year.
The Prime Minister joined Home Secretary Charles Clarke in announcing a 10-point plan to “fight back against thugs†and cut crime overall by 15%.
But later Mr Blair was involved in a heated phone-in exchange with a police officer, who lambasted him over the number of officers on the beat.
Labour pledged that a new Violent Crime Reduction Bill, would be introduced within weeks of a General Election victory.
It will include tougher sentences for knife and gun crime, raise the age at which a young person can buy a knife from 16 to 18 and make it illegal to buy an imitation firearm below the age of 18.
Ministers plan to consult on the feasibility of banning replica and imitation guns altogether and set up a Gun Crime Hotline for people to raise worries about gangs using guns to intimidate communities.
Under the crime crackdown, hooligans responsible for anti-social behaviour would be publicly named and shamed so local people knew who was responsible for any trouble.
Mr Blair promised to ensure a “visible uniformed presence†in every community by adding to record police numbers with 20,000 extra community support officers by 2008.
“On any basis, crime has fallen since we came to office,†Mr Blair said. “Yet we know that for many people in local communities it doesn’t feel like that.â€
Mr Clarke told a news conference: “The fight against crime, and particularly violent crime and anti-social behaviour, is a number one priority for Labour.
“It is under a Labour Government that overall crime has fallen by 30% and violent crime by 26% but of course we want this to fall further.
“That is why we commit to reducing all crime by a further 15% and within that to ensure that violent crime continues to fall.â€
But Conservative leader Michael Howard rejected any claims of a fall in violent crime, insisting: “The police’s own figures demonstrate with absolute clarity that violent crime has been increasing very fast under this Government.â€
And a police officer, who claimed his job was getting increasingly harder, criticised the Government’s record on a phone-in for BBC Radio 5 Live.
The officer, who identified himself only as Carl, from Boston, Lincolnshire, asked: “Why is it that you continually make my job harder by telling the general public that there are more police officers than there has ever been, when for every police officer you have put in the rank and file on the street, you have probably put another four in offices ?â€
Mr Blair responded: “I speak to a lot of police officers, Carl, who don’t actually share that perspective and who actually believe that they are getting on top of the crime situation, difficult though it is.â€
Earlier at the news conference, the Prime Minister got into hot water after appearing to suggest crime was less violent during the era when the notorious Kray twins ruled London’s East End.
Speaking of today’s drug gangs, he said “when you watch the films back in the 1950s about this type of criminal there were certainly rules or a code that even some of those people seemed to have – it was not of the same nature as some of the really appalling ugly violent crime that you get today linked with drugs.â€
Challenged later, however, he said: “I’d better issue a correction. No, I’m notbeing nostalgic for the era of the Krays.â€
******