nuts4chic - lifestyle
|
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
Gun crime has risen by 35% in a year in the UK, new Home Office figures show
There were 9,974 incidents involving firearms in the 12 months to April 2002 - a rise from 7,362 over the previous year. The latest gun crime figures are more than double the 4,903 firearms incidents recorded in 1997. The biggest increases are in the large metropolitan areas. London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands which account for 54% of recorded incidents.
But Home Office Minister John Denham also pointed to new data "The British Crime Survey shows crime has been falling since 1997 and the risk of being a victim is very low - around the same as 1981," he said. But, these statistics come after the government in January announced a crackdown on gun crime with a series of plans to tighten firearms law. Mr Denham denied the government had rushed into new plans against gun crime. He said rising gun violence was only a small part of overall crime but was "desperately worrying", especially for the worst-affected areas.
Liberal Democrat spokesman Simon Hughes suggested that the gun figures meant tougher targeting of gun-toting gangs was needed. Whilst, ex-Leader of the Conservative Party Iain Duncan Smith said some inner city areas were almost "lawless" following the growth of a gangs and guns culture.
In the line of fire
He continued, saying that the rise in gun crime was linked to "the huge increase in the drugs culture that's taking place in the cities that's literally ripping apart the inner cities, breaking this fabric down".
With the numbers of teenage victims involved in shootings increasing, the like of cousins Charlene Ellis, 18, and Letisha Shakespeare, 17, who were gunned down in Birmingham on New Year’s Eve 2002 catapulted the issue to the fore of the media spotlight, raising such concerns that urban gun crime was recognised as a national crisis. As the deaths of further victims Craig Thoms, 28 in Hackney as well as Billy Cox, 15, of Clapham, who died from a gunshot wound to the chest and James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, and Michael Dosunmu, 15, who were gunned down in Streatham and Peckham respectively. All of which were killed in February 2007.
| Continue to browse this article | |
 |
Trigger Happy |
 |
Crime culture and gang warfare |
|
Continue to browse the magazine |
|
 |
Film nuts4chic has incredible Culture Pages including this exclusive interview with Jennifer Lopez. Check it out! |
 |
Love Neely Steinberg is nuts4chic Relationship Editor. She finds out How To Fall In Love With The Right Man. |
 |
|
 |
Gossip Jennifer Pinner is hot on the trail of our Celebrities. Gossip is the word. nuts4chic has it all! |
 |
Health Are you nuts4food? Bread making is not rocket science. nuts4chic finds more. |
1 of 1
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
