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GCN ARCHIVE
GCN Comment
Future
of the Firearms Consultative Committee
January 2004
Statement made by Home Officer Minister Caroline Flint, 30 January 2004
"The
Home Secretary has decided not to further extend the life of the
Firearms Consultative Committee, which will cease to exist on 31
January. The Committee was originally set up for a period of five years
from 1 February 1989 under section 22 of the Firearms (Amendment) Act
1988. A total of four orders were subsequently made to allow for its
continued existence as provided for by section 22(8).
"Since it was established the
Committee has made eleven reports and the Home Secretary is grateful for
the close scrutiny it has given to a whole range of difficult and
complex issues. The Government is anxious to maintain a forum for
consultation but would wish to do so on a broader basis than allowed by
the existing statutory framework. Urgent consideration will be given to
setting up a new consultative structure, possibly on the basis of a
two-tier structure to look at detailed technical matters and the
operation of firearms controls in the round."
In response to questions from Bill Wiggin MP and the
Earl of Shrewsbury, ministers confirmed that the life of the committee
would not be extended beyond 31 January 2004.
Gun Control Network is pleased to note that the
Government's intention is for a new consultative structure with a
broader basis than the Firearms Consultative Committee, which was
dominated by shooting and gun industry interests.
*****
In a written Commons statement on
the new Firearms Advisory Committee (20 May 2004), Home Office Minister
said :
"Following
the Home Secretary's decision not to further extend the life of the
Firearms Consultative Committee, we have been considering how best to
establish a forum for consultation and to assist in the current review
of legislation. We have decided to establish a broad-based Firearms
Advisory Committee with around 21 members to be drawn in equal measure
from shooting interests; law enforcement/regulation; and organisations
and community groups with an interest in the social consequences of
firearms use and misuse.
The Committee's
terms of reference will be:
To advise the Home
Secretary on the law and policy on firearms, having regard to the
need to maintain public safety and prevent criminal misuse and
taking into account the interests of legitimate shooters and the
efficient, effective administration of controls.
It will be assisted
in this task by a Technical Sub-Committee with 12 to 15 members drawn
principally from representatives of law enforcement bodies and
shooting organisations with knowledge and experience of firearms
matters. The Sub-Committee's terms of reference will be:
To consider the
technical and legal aspects of administering and enforcing firearms
controls and to make recommendations to the Firearms Advisory
Committee on these and such other matters as may be referred to
them.
We will be
approaching interested organisations and individuals to seek
nominations to serve on one, or both, committees with a view to
appointing members as soon as possible.
The Committee will
be asked to submit a report of its work after 12 months and copies
will be placed in the Library."
Appointments to the new Firearms Advisory Committee
have yet to be announced.
Amended - September 2004
Gun Crime Figures -
2002/2003
January 2004
The latest figures show a further increase in
recorded gun crime for England and Wales
in 2002/03. The percentage increase was much lower than in the
previous year, and it was widely reported that the figures may have
peaked. The Quarterly Crime Update has reported that firearms
offences have actually been falling since November 2002.
The number of offences (excluding those involving air
weapons) rose by 2.2% to 10,248. The proportion of offences
involving imitation firearms continues to increase, up to 46% in some
areas; there has been an over three-fold increase in four years. GCN and others will continue to campaign for a ban on the
manufacture, sale and possession of these weapons.
Reports from individual police forces also suggest
that the picture is not a uniform one across the country with gun crime
decreasing in some areas while in others it continues to rise:
Cheshire Police report that gun crime in the area has
fallen consistently over the past two year with a drop of 14% in the
total of crimes between 2001 and 2003 (Daily Post).
The Assistant Chief
Constable of Greater Manchester Police Force said that his force were
"currently projecting a reduction of 40 per cent in the number of
murders involving firearms in 2003/4 compared to 2000/1 - and a 44 per
cent reduction in robberies involving firearms"
Gun crime in Staffordshire is reported to have
fallen by 14 percent in the last year according to The Sentinel.
Assistant Chief Constable Huw Jones attributed the fall in part to
looking at what kind of shotgun certificates and firearms licences were
given out in the first place, which means there are probably less
weapons in circulation.
In South Yorkshire the recorded total of gun offences
- excluding air weapons - fell from 170 in 2001-02 to 153 in 2002-03 (Sheffield
Today).
Gun crime in Cambridgeshire showed a significant
increase with 57 offences (compared with 49 the previous year) according
to Cambridge News. Detective Superintendent Mick Campbell
reassured the public that "we have an extremely low level of gun crime".
Gun crime also rose in Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, though in all
counties the number of firearms offences was below the average for
England and Wales of 20 crimes per 100,000 residents.
The Nottingham Evening Post reported that gun
crime in Nottinghamshire showed an annual rise of nearly 30 percent from
2o4 offences to 264 offences in 2002-03. Rises were also reported
for Derbyshire and Leicestershire. Detective Chief Inspector Ian
Waterfield of Notts police said that "since September 2003 we have
started to reverse that trend".
Staffordshire also recorded an increase in gun crime,
but The Sentinel cast doubt on whether this reflected the latest
trends since the crimes in the figures happened between two years and
nine months earlier.
>
View the
Data
In contrast to England and Wales, in
Scotland gun crime has fallen significantly since
it peaked in the mid-1990s. The total number of offences in 2002
(1014) was down by 2% from 2001 and by nearly 30% since 1996. The
total number of homicides was three.
The number of incidents involving an unknown type of
firearm has increased in recent years, owing to a change in the way in
which the largest police forces such as Strathclyde and Lothian and
Borders record gun crime. Until recently if the firearm involved
had not been identified a guess was made about its type. In most
cases this was an air gun. Now no guess is made and it is recorded
as unknown.
The Scottish figures show that it is wrong to
conclude that there is a gun crime wave sweeping the UK, and emphasise
that gun crime tends to be concentrated in a relatively few specific
locations, mostly inner city areas in England.
>
View the
Data
Home Office Figures Show Violent Crime to be Falling Overall but
Firearms Still Haunt the UK Crime Scene
January 2002
The gun lobby has made much of the recent crime statistics for England and
Wales claiming that violent crime, especially firearm related crime, is on
the increase. They argue that this ‘proves’ that the handgun ban introduced
in 1997 is not working and should be repealed. In the month before
Christmas 2001, four TV documentaries concerned with firearms and crime were
broadcast in Britain. GCN members and supporters took part in these when
invited and the debates these programmes generated prove beyond any doubt
that the case for retaining our existing gun controls needs to be strongly
reasserted against the gun lobby’s claim that the legislation was unfair and
unworkable.
Any
debate about the crime statistics and what they reveal is fraught with
problems but the following facts attempt to clarify the picture. In fact,
overall violent crime appears to be falling and firearms were used in only a
tiny minority of offences. Contrary to the impression given in some media
reports and eagerly seized upon by the gun lobby, the streets of Britain are
not ‘awash’ with illegal guns, notwithstanding the serious criminal problems
in some cities.
-
Guns
were used in only 0.3% of notifiable offences in 1999/00. Even in relation
to violent crime, only 4.7% of robberies and 8.5% of homicides involved
guns, so the violence problem in Britain is, to a very large extent, not
gun-related.
-
Handgun homicide figures are very
low and since 1980 have fluctuated from a low of 7 in 1988, through to 35 in
1993 and a previous high of 39 in 1997. So the 42 handgun murders in 1999
do not represent a statistically significant increase.
-
The figures for overall handgun crime
have also fluctuated peaking at 4273 in 1993, followed by a sharp drop to
2648 after Dunblane and then a rise last year to 3685. There is clear
evidence that this recent growth is being driven by the trade in illegal
drugs, gang activity and ‘organised’ crime in a few large cities. Recent TV
documentaries have focussed upon this criminal activity (and police
operations against it) but the real point is that it represents a quite
exceptional phase in a very particular type of crime in Britain.
-
There is evidence of growth
in the use of imitation guns in crime but no accurate figures can be
put on this. Estimates, however, based upon recent research, suggest that
around 40% of handgun crime is attributable to imitations and that this
proportion may be growing given the easy availability of these, often very
realistic, weapons.
-
Recorded crime figures are always
affected by police activity and, in a number of areas, police forces are
proactively addressing firearm related crime (Operation Trident in London
and Manchester for example). One outcome of this activity will undoubtedly
be an increase in recorded gun crime as more of it is brought to light by
police operations.
-
Any claim about rising
violence based only on crimes recorded by the police is very unreliable
because only around 40% of violent crimes are ever reported to the police.
The authoritative British Crime Survey, published by the Home Office, and
based on directly asking the public their experience of violence, shows a
continuing decline in the level of violence. Thus the recent 2001
Survey showed an overall decrease of 19% in violent crimes between 1999 and
2000. This included a 34% decline in wounding, a 14% decline in common
assault and a 22% decline in robbery
In summary
-
Much
recent research has highlighted the fact that the UK does not have a
particularly low rate of violent crime compared to other modern western
societies but it does have a low rate of gun crime and homicide. In our
view this is because of our tight gun laws and the relative inaccessibility
of guns in our society.
-
The
gun lobby point to a relatively small and quite exceptional increase in
firearm related crime in order to support their case for repealing our gun
control legislation. However, it is clear to the vast majority of the
British public that any relaxation of gun controls or the routine arming of
the police would lead to an increase in the use of guns in crime. For these
reasons GCN members have resisted such developments.
UK Crime Statistics issued
in January 2001: the Truth
January 2001
The gun lobby has been getting very excited about the
UK’s recent crime statistics. It is being suggested that because
violent crime is on the increase in this country the handgun ban
introduced in 1997 isn’t working.
This is simply false.
The following facts may help to put the record
straight.
-
The overall
rise in crimes of violence is 16% and the rise in robbery 26% so it is
true that we seem to be becoming a more violent society generally.
This is a matter of great concern to us all. There is evidence
that the biggest growth is in street muggings related to the theft of
mobile phones.
-
Guns were used in only 4.7% of robberies in 1999 and 4.4% in
1998 so the problem is to a very large extent one of non-firearms
crime. Our tight gun laws are undoubtedly responsible for the
relatively rare use of guns in crime.
-
Handgun homicide figures are very low and since 1980 have fluctuated
from a low of 7 in 1988, through to 35 in 1993 and a previous high of
39 in1997. So 42 gun murders in 1999 does not represent a
statistically significant increase.
-
There is evidence of a growth in
the use of imitation guns in crime but no figures can be put on
this. It is likely however that some of the rise in handgun crime is
attributable to imitations.
Much recent research has highlighted the fact
that the UK does not have a particularly low rate of violent crime but
it does have a low rate of gun crime. This is because of our
tight gun laws and because we do not have an armed police force.
It is clear to the vast majority of British citizens that any
relaxation of gun controls or the routine arming of the police would
lead to an increase in the use of guns in crime. For these reasons
such developments will be fiercely resisted.
Firearms Crime
Increasing Again
January 2001
The recent release of
Home Office Recorded crime statistics for 1999-2000 showed that
firearm-related offending is increasing again. Overall there were almost
17,000 gun related offences in 1999-2000. Just over 10,000 of these
involved air weapons, but 6,843 offences involved firearms other than air
weapons, the highest figure since 1993. Having dropped in 1996 after
Dunblane, the incidence of gun crime is now rising again; some of this
increase may be explained by changes in crime reporting procedures and
some of it may be the result of the proliferation of replica weapons, but
the figures are troubling and remind us that there is still much to do in
the field of gun control.
But why should overall
firearm related offending be continuing to rise even after the handgun
ban? A number of factors come into play.
First, as the Home
Office acknowledges, there have been a number of changes in the way
offences are recorded. These are not thought likely to have influenced
the figures for serious crimes by a great deal but may have increased the
rate of recording of less serious offences.
Second, another
point made by the Home Office statisticians, the figures are based upon
the accounts of witnesses or victims and will include offences in which
the firearm employed (to intimidate) will not have been ‘real.’ As recent
research suggests, people are often incapable of distinguishing between
real and ‘replica’ firearms, so it is likely that a number of imitation
weapons will be included in the figures. The answer, as GCN has argued
for some time, is not to suggest that the ‘firearm problem’ is
exaggerated, but to prohibit replica weapons.
Third, recorded
crime figures are always affected by police activity and, in a number of
areas, police forces are proactively addressing firearm related crime
(Operation Trident in London, for example). One outcome of this activity
will undoubtedly be an increase in recorded offending as more of it is
brought to light by police operations.
Fourth, on a more
negative note, the National Firearms Database, promised in 1998, is still
some way off and not expected to be up and running until Spring 2002. The
database would have provided police, security services and customs and
exercise a very effective intelligence and control vehicle for tackling
illegal firearms. In its absence society’s strategic defences against
firearms are seriously weakened and likely to be subject to fluctuations
in crime patterns.
Finally, as Police Reports from a number of
areas, (Greater Manchester and Merseyside for example) have indicated,
continuing problems concerning firearm use in crime relate to historic
problems of firearm availability in those areas. During the mid-1990s
both Forces reported the growth of criminal ‘cottage industries’
reactivating ‘deactivated weapons.’ These and other weapons were then
rented out by ‘criminal armourers.’ The problem was addressed, in part,
in 1995 by tougher specifications for weapon deactivation but the Police
believe that a pool of these weapons is still available for criminal use.
Manchester police were attributing recent shootings to this older pool of
illegal and non-surrendered weapons. This obviously has little bearing
upon the handgun ban. In fact, the criminal use of older weapons
might be seen in a more positive light, suggesting that offenders are
beginning to find it harder to get hold of new firearms following the 1997
legislation.
Most worrying of all, however is that the apparently
underlying trend in firearm use in crime continues to rise and GCN’s
broader mission to resist the emerging ‘gunculture’ in Britain comes into
play. Recent news stories have drawn attention to growing problems with
firearms in drug and gang activity in a number of cities, including the
controversial, hard-hitting, ‘Young, Gifted and Dead’ campaign in Brent.
While no-one ever claimed that prohibiting handguns would eliminate all
firearm related offending, nor that gun control was a panacea, a sensible
approach to public safety demands action on a number of fronts: to
support and strengthen the firearms controls already in place, to tackle
the rising trend in gun-related crime, and to resist the wider gun
culture.
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