Gun law stalks Britains Streets

 

Gun controls answer to failed gun bans

Daily Express 14.5.01
Gun law stalks Britains Streets

Demand for thousands of extra police

BY RACHEL BAIRD HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT

Orginal text copyright Daily Express

BRITAIN is facing an explosion of gun violence, prompting calls for thousands of extra beat officers to make streets safer. {Ed note: The gun ban was supposed to do that, why now is this needed or has crime increased. Did somebody make false promises or lie?}

Firearms are now used in 18 crimes a day, representing a 40 per cent leap in armed offences in the past five years. The alarming trend is revealed in figures due to be published after the election on June 7 and which show that violent crime is still on the increase, to the embarrassment of the Government. {Ed note: The government should be embarrassed and ashamed that it has deliberately endangered the lives of citizens.}

The disclosure prompted the Police Federation yesterday to call for thousands of extra officers to be drafted on to the streets.

To back its demand for 140,000 officers by 2004 -10 per cent more than proposed by the Government - it drew comparisons between London and New York.

London, which now has a higher crime rate, has one police officer for every 285 citizens. But in New York there is one for every 197, helping to reduce the city's murder rate by 66 per cent and crime overall by 12 per cent. {Ed note: New York also has a gun ban and has a higher rate of crime than many other US cities and states. Obviously why New York was chosen so as not to make the comparison differences to great and arouse the British public.}

The lack of policing on London's streets was highlighted by Simon Milton, leader of Tory-controlled Westminster City Council, who said: "On some nights in the West End there are as few as 13 officers on duty to cope with perhaps over 100,000 people out late. The lack of adequate policing is in danger of turning the West End into a state of lawlessness." {Ed note: Amazing how no connection can be seen between the banning of guns and the resultant increase of crime.}

Home Secretary Jack Straw said he could not meet the the Police Federation's demands but Labour would eventually increase the number of officers to 130,000. He said the total would be higher than under a Conservative government. The Tories would bring the number to 127,000, said Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe yesterday.

Within the European Union, figures show that violent crime in England and Wales is rising at twice the average rate at a time when crime is falling. It is estimated that 300,000 illegal weapons are circulating in the underworld. {Ed note: Now that there is a government backed guarantee that victims will be unarmed why is there such surprise that England in now becoming move violent than the USA. It was predictable, it was known, it was explained to the government who ignored it.}

It also emerged yesterday that the lack of police has led to four out of five crimes remaining unsolved and that robberies involving violence or the threat of it are up by 35 per cent since last year. {Ed note: The police are more concerned with legal firearms and attention has been diverted from policing activities to becoming information gatherers and government agents of harassment. The known results of gun control laws are an increase of crime and increase in demand from criminals. Criminals who can now operate in a safer work environment.}

Superintendent David Baines of Greater Manchester Police said the use of firearms was up by 15 per cent in his area. "Robbery is the one offence which has suddenly become fashionable," he added. {Ed note: The police had every opportunity of studying the problem and finding out the results of gun bans. Instead they chose to ignore what every unbiased study has found. More guns in law-abiding citizens hands, less crime.}

Senior officers fear the number of crimes involving guns will continue to rise as turf wars in inner cities become increasingly violent. The use of guns in street crimes rose by more than 50 per cent last year to its highest ever level. {Ed note: Police officials are more concerned with their political career than citizens lives, just like the government. Guns = illegal firearms in this case because it is difficult to impossible to own or carry a firearm in England legally. Thanks to the stupidity of a uncaring government banning the possession of handguns.}

Last Tuesday Alice Carroll, 70, was shot in the back when she was caught in the crossfire of a drugs-related gang feud in Longsight, Manchester. The following day West Midlands police launched a murder inquiry after a 22-year old Wolverhampton man was found dead with head injuries caused by a single bullet.

Also in recent weeks, two men were shot dead in North London, one man was gunned down in Brixton, South London and, in the same area, a pregnant woman was kneecapped in front of her two young children.

In Nottingham, where gang wars are blighting parts of the city, police have resorted to arming officers on patrol.

The latest victim of gun crime was named yesterday as Andre Aylward, 27, who died in a hail of bullets in his BMW in Streatham, South London, early on Saturday.

Home Office figures reveal that there were 6,843 firearms offences in England and Wales last year; in 1997 there were less than 5,000. {Ed note: In 1997 there were more legal firearms which laws introduced in 1997 forced people to hand in for destruction. There is a moral and lesson here somewhere but the author is incapable of seeing it.}

Police chiefs are calling for stricter gun laws, including new controls on replica weapons. But they oppose the arming of all police officers, favouring instead the use of permanently mobile armed units which can respond to shootings within minutes. {Ed note: A typical approach by gun control (the criminals friends) that somehow just can't see the failure of gun control to reduce either crime or the supply of guns to criminals. Somehow such fools believe more gun control laws are needed. One just has to ask how many times gun laws have to fail before they are seen for what they are.}

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