Drizzt
Member
The Leader-Post (Regina)
February 3, 2003 Monday Final Edition
SECTION: Viewpoints; View From the U.K.; Pg. B7
LENGTH: 729 words
HEADLINE: Growth of gun use concerns Britons
SOURCE: Special to The Leader-Post
BYLINE: Andy Imlach
DATELINE: LONDON
BODY:
LONDON -- One of the policemen patrolling the London sidewalk outside St. Stephen's Entrance, the main public door into the British Houses of Parliament, has two new additions to his traditional bobby's uniform -- body armour and an automatic rifle.
In Bristol in mid-January, for the first time ever police headed out on routine patrols with carbine rifles, an attempt to forestall or put down a feared war between rival drug gangs.
Back in London, an armed man held off police marksmen surrounding his house for more than two weeks before his death ended Britain's longest siege since knights and archers parked outside castles. The siege began on Boxing Day when police tried to tow away a car suspected of being used in an August shooting incident and suddenly found themselves under fire from a nearby house. Meanwhile, England football captain David Beckham and his former Spice Girl wife Victoria, were reportedly test driving a special bullet-proof version of a BMW around the English countryside following a foiled kidnap plot; two girls were gunned down at a party in Birmingham; and Miss Dynamite, a rising pop star, appealed to her audience at a large London concert to give up the gun culture that is gripping parts of British society.
The days are gone when British criminals didn't carry guns because the police didn't, and news reports of shoot-outs and armed assaults were invariably American. Guns have now become almost a fashion accessory in some inner-city communities and gun crimes grow rapidly.
In London, regarded internationally as safe and unintimidating, there were on average 11 incidents a day in 2002 involving guns, as the number of firearm offences rose a fearsome 35 per cent in one year.
The use of handguns in crimes jumped by 46 per cent and, although London recorded half of all the gun-related incidents, in other parts of England and Wales criminals were also increasingly carrying firearms.
Even the use of airguns, which aren't counted as "real" guns even though they were responsible for two deaths last year, rose by 21 per cent last year.
In releasing the latest crime figures, government officials were quick to point out that the statistics for the year up to Sept. 1, 2002, were always going to be inflated because of more stringent reporting rules that meant incidents that previously went unreported now count.
Additionally, it was noted that in the vast majority of incidents the guns were used to threaten and were not actually fired.
It is also true that the presence of the armed officer outside the Houses of Parliament is part of a major show of force to discourage terrorists rather than to stop crime.
However, the new reporting rules were expected to boost gun crime figures by 20 per cent, not 35 per cent.
Furthermore, the reporting year did not include any of the violence that has made headlines in recent months. And whether the threat is from terrorists or criminals, armed attacks in England are now far from the rarity they used to be.
As well as causing public alarm, the latest gun crime statistics also raise a serious question about gun control. Following the shooting of 16 people, including children, outside a school in Northern Ireland, handguns were officially banned in 1997 and strict controls were introduced on all privately owned guns. These include requiring guns used for sporting events to be safely locked away in gun clubs.
Yet, despite these stringent controls, the use of handguns in crimes has more than doubled in the ensuing five years.
Blame for this surge in serious violence has been placed on various doorsteps: a rise in drug use and the gang culture, particularly involving Jamaican Yardies; violent song lyrics, movies and computer games, and the influx of asylum seekers from countries such as the Balkans, where guns were more commonly a way of life than they have been in Britain.
But even with the huge percentage rise in gun use, Britain is still far less threatened by armed criminals than many other countries.
That 96 shooting deaths and just under 10,000 gun crimes a year is causing grave concern in a country of close to 60 million people is as much a tribute to Britain's traditional aversion to armed crime as it is evidence of the development of a more vicious criminal element.
February 3, 2003 Monday Final Edition
SECTION: Viewpoints; View From the U.K.; Pg. B7
LENGTH: 729 words
HEADLINE: Growth of gun use concerns Britons
SOURCE: Special to The Leader-Post
BYLINE: Andy Imlach
DATELINE: LONDON
BODY:
LONDON -- One of the policemen patrolling the London sidewalk outside St. Stephen's Entrance, the main public door into the British Houses of Parliament, has two new additions to his traditional bobby's uniform -- body armour and an automatic rifle.
In Bristol in mid-January, for the first time ever police headed out on routine patrols with carbine rifles, an attempt to forestall or put down a feared war between rival drug gangs.
Back in London, an armed man held off police marksmen surrounding his house for more than two weeks before his death ended Britain's longest siege since knights and archers parked outside castles. The siege began on Boxing Day when police tried to tow away a car suspected of being used in an August shooting incident and suddenly found themselves under fire from a nearby house. Meanwhile, England football captain David Beckham and his former Spice Girl wife Victoria, were reportedly test driving a special bullet-proof version of a BMW around the English countryside following a foiled kidnap plot; two girls were gunned down at a party in Birmingham; and Miss Dynamite, a rising pop star, appealed to her audience at a large London concert to give up the gun culture that is gripping parts of British society.
The days are gone when British criminals didn't carry guns because the police didn't, and news reports of shoot-outs and armed assaults were invariably American. Guns have now become almost a fashion accessory in some inner-city communities and gun crimes grow rapidly.
In London, regarded internationally as safe and unintimidating, there were on average 11 incidents a day in 2002 involving guns, as the number of firearm offences rose a fearsome 35 per cent in one year.
The use of handguns in crimes jumped by 46 per cent and, although London recorded half of all the gun-related incidents, in other parts of England and Wales criminals were also increasingly carrying firearms.
Even the use of airguns, which aren't counted as "real" guns even though they were responsible for two deaths last year, rose by 21 per cent last year.
In releasing the latest crime figures, government officials were quick to point out that the statistics for the year up to Sept. 1, 2002, were always going to be inflated because of more stringent reporting rules that meant incidents that previously went unreported now count.
Additionally, it was noted that in the vast majority of incidents the guns were used to threaten and were not actually fired.
It is also true that the presence of the armed officer outside the Houses of Parliament is part of a major show of force to discourage terrorists rather than to stop crime.
However, the new reporting rules were expected to boost gun crime figures by 20 per cent, not 35 per cent.
Furthermore, the reporting year did not include any of the violence that has made headlines in recent months. And whether the threat is from terrorists or criminals, armed attacks in England are now far from the rarity they used to be.
As well as causing public alarm, the latest gun crime statistics also raise a serious question about gun control. Following the shooting of 16 people, including children, outside a school in Northern Ireland, handguns were officially banned in 1997 and strict controls were introduced on all privately owned guns. These include requiring guns used for sporting events to be safely locked away in gun clubs.
Yet, despite these stringent controls, the use of handguns in crimes has more than doubled in the ensuing five years.
Blame for this surge in serious violence has been placed on various doorsteps: a rise in drug use and the gang culture, particularly involving Jamaican Yardies; violent song lyrics, movies and computer games, and the influx of asylum seekers from countries such as the Balkans, where guns were more commonly a way of life than they have been in Britain.
But even with the huge percentage rise in gun use, Britain is still far less threatened by armed criminals than many other countries.
That 96 shooting deaths and just under 10,000 gun crimes a year is causing grave concern in a country of close to 60 million people is as much a tribute to Britain's traditional aversion to armed crime as it is evidence of the development of a more vicious criminal element.
