3 April 2006
Gun Crime Statistics
Gun Control Network is concerned about the
frequency with which some journalists, commentators and correspondents
quote incorrect data when writing about gun crime in Britain. In some
cases this may be due to poor research. In certain instances,
however, it appears to be a deliberate attempt to portray a misleading
and more alarming picture of gun crime than actually exists.
GCN uses the figures released by the Home Office
(for England and Wales) and the Scottish Executive (for Scotland) and
takes note, not only of the overall number of incidents, but also of
the contributions made to the total by different categories of
weapon. We suggest that others do so as well.
Recently it has been claimed that gun crime has
risen three-fold since 1996, the year before the post-Dunblane handgun
ban was introduced. Ross Clark in an opinion piece in The Times
(14 March) quoted a figure of 7,753 gun crimes in 1996 rising to
24,094 in 2003-04. Any careful check would have revealed that the
correct figure for all gun crime in 1996 was 13,876. The mistake is
not even explained by the exclusion of airgun incidents from the
earlier but not the later total. Furthermore, this was not a
one-off. Graham Lane, writing to the Sunday Herald letters
page (12 March), asked for an explanation for the “massive threefold
increase in armed crime and murder by use of firearms since this
ban.” GCN believes that it is no coincidence that Clark and Lane used
similar exaggerations in pieces in which they both argued for a
reversal of the handgun ban. Such incorrect statistics ought to have
been challenged before publication.
Whilst gun crime has risen in England and Wales
since 1996 the official figures reveal that this is largely owing to
big increases in the number of incidents involving airguns, imitation
guns and other weapons such as paintball guns for which there are few
controls. Total gun crime, and handgun crime in particular, has
fallen significantly in Scotland since the mid-1990s. In England and
Wales handgun crime has fallen for the last two years, as has the
total number of crimes, if those involving airguns and imitation guns
are excluded.
The lazy or deliberate use of incorrect statistics
has contributed to a situation in which too many journalists
automatically describe gun crime in Britain as “rocketing out of
control”. The correct statistics show that this is not the case.
Britain has a low rate of gun crime, but we must
not be complacent. Additional measures can be taken to reduce it
further, and GCN supports those contained in the Violent Crime
Reduction Bill to tackle problems involving airguns and imitation
guns, two categories of weapon which have been used increasingly in
crime. However, any exaggeration of the overall level of gun crime
will lead to an unnecessary increase in fear among the general
public. The media should ensure that it does not contribute to this
by failing to challenge those who wish to mislead in a partisan cause.
GCN therefore urges editors to keep a close check on the selective and
incorrect use of statistics in any report or discussion of gun crime.
9 March 2006
Tenth
Anniversary of the Dunblane Shootings
The legacy
Nearly 10 years ago, the terrible shootings at Dunblane Primary School
shook the nation and the world. A tide of revulsion against guns was let
loose and in its aftermath a seminal piece of legislation was enacted – a
ban on the civilian ownership of handguns.
In 1996 the gun lobby claimed that shooting with
handguns was the fastest growing sport in the country. Without
Dunblane and the handgun ban we would live in a very different country.
Handguns would have proliferated and, if America is anything to go by, so
too would gun injury and death.
The connection between the availability of guns and
their misuse is clear and compelling. By criminalizing handguns we
have ensured that gun deaths have remained low by international standards.
For example, the gun homicide rate in England and Wales is 40 times
smaller than the rate in USA.
We have also ensured that no legal handgun owner will
ever commit such an outrage as the massacre of 16 children and their
teacher. Since nearly all mass shootings, especially where the
perpetrator takes his own life, are committed by legal gun owners
(Hungerford, Montreal, Zug, Erfurt, and various places in the USA) we have
also statistically reduced the risk of such a tragedy happening again.
Mick North whose daughter Sophie was killed by Thomas
Hamilton on 13 March 1996 says “I have no doubt that had it not been
possible for Hamilton legally to own guns simply for the purpose of target
shooting that he would never have thought through or carried out his
crime.”
Continuing problem of gun crime
Since Dunblane and the handgun ban, increases in gun crime have been
associated mainly with imitation weapons and airguns. Incidents
involving imitation guns have increased fourfold since 1999 and airgun
crime has risen by 60%.in the last decade.
GCN has campaigned for years for a ban on the sale,
manufacture, transfer and import of imitations and we are delighted that
the government has finally acknowledged the problem and incorporated such
a measure into the Violent Crime Reduction Bill which currently awaits its
passage through the House of Lords. Measures to restrict the sale of
airguns to Registered Firearms Dealers are also in the Bill and should
provide the basis for a registration system in the future. We look forward
to this Bill being enacted in the very near future.
National Firearms Registry
Provision for a national database of gun owners was made in the first
Firearms Amendment Act of 1997. It is indeed bizarre that nine
years later the nation still waits.
Gill Marshall-Andrews Chair of GCN says “ Is this
incompetence or a lack of political will? The register is basically
a list. It won’t contain biometric data on gun owners. It’s not a
difficult thing to develop. Either the police don’t want it and have
sabotaged it or the Home Office doesn’t want it and has sabotaged it.
Whatever it is neither comes out looking good or indeed competent”.
The Olympics
The gun lobby has never accepted the handgun ban and has taken every
opportunity to urge its reversal. Now they are campaigning to have
the ban lifted to allow handguns to be used by those wishing to compete in
the Olympic Games. GCN is firmly against such an erosion of the law.
Rather than compromise our strict gun laws we would suggest the removal of
handgun events from the Games entirely. Since only 5 of the 17 shooting
events involve handguns we would urge the Olympic Committee to consider
carefully whether weapons responsible for such huge numbers of deaths and
injuries around the world should really remain in the Games even in the
marginal position they hold today. GCN is seeking an early meeting
with Richard Caborn the Minister for Sport to discuss this.
13 October 2005 (an earlier version was
released in August 2005)
The Violent Crime Reduction
Bill 2005
The Violent Crime Reduction Bill was initially published
on 8 June and had its second reading on 20 June 2005. As it enters the
Committee stage today, an orchestrated campaign to water it down is
underway. Paintballers and airsoft gunners who feel their sports are
threatened are urging MPs to throw out the section of the bill that deals
with imitation guns.
Section 30 of the Bill introduces the term 'a realistic imitation firearm'
which it goes on to define as 'an imitation firearm whose appearance is so
realistic as to make it indistinguishable, for all practical purposes, from
a firearm of an existing make or model ...'. An imitation will not be
regarded as 'distinguishable' if it could be distinguished from the real
thing only by an expert, or on close examination or as a result of
attempting to load or to fire it.
So, anything that looks like a real firearm will no longer be legally sold,
imported or manufactured. It does not matter whether the gun fires a pellet,
a capsule of paint, a ball bearing or nothing at all. If a court finds that
a BB gun or air pistol looks like a realistic firearm then it may not be
manufactured, bought or sold.
There will of course still be look-alikes in cupboards and under beds all
around the country, but in due course even they will gradually disappear -
perhaps an opportunity to hand them in to the police will assist the
process.
The aim and benefit of this excellent piece of legislation is to stop
children and young people treating guns as toys, learning about the power
the gun gives them and graduating to more dangerous weapons.
As Gill Marshall-Andrews Chair of the Gun Control Network says ' No-one
needs a realistic imitation gun - except perhaps a re-enactment society.
Paintball and airsoft guns do not have to look like the real thing. A green
plastic BB gun would not be affected by the proposed legislation. If it's
not lethal and doesn't look like a real firearm then there's no problem'.
The Gun Control Network welcomes the government's commitment to dealing with
the recent sharp rise (66%) in gun crime involving imitation guns. We
will be safer, and importantly we will feel safer, if we can stop the spread
of these unnecessary weapons.
9 March 2005
Lethal Airguns
> See also
Quotes
The death of Andrew Morton, the two-year-old from
Easterhouse, Glasgow, who was shot in the head with an airgun pellet,
has once again shown in the most tragic way possible that airguns are lethal
weapons.
Airguns are not toys. They are dangerous weapons
that have become increasingly sophisticated over the years. Legislation
must take that into account.
Despite a recent increase in the minimum age for
purchasing an airgun, they are still too easily available, and too many
are already owned and used by those who have no good reason to keep
them. With such lack of control it is predictable that some people,
especially young boys, will consider it fun to take potshots at
property, pets and people. Too often they are being used by children,
targeted at children or fired in areas where children are playing or
walking.
In its response to Andrew Morton’s death the Home
Office has commented that enforcement of legislation is the key and that
it is now an offence to be in possession of an airgun in a public place
without good reason. This misses the point. The new legislation did
nothing to tighten controls over airguns within private property. The
shot that killed Andrew was fired from a flat, so the offence that led
to Andrew’s death could only be dealt with after it had happened. That
is too late for victims. The Government needs to introduce tougher
measures to prevent airgun crime and that should mean a restriction on
ownership.
For years the Gun Control Network has been
campaigning for tighter controls over airguns. We have proposed that
all lethal guns should be licensed, irrespective of their firing
mechanism. We believe that lethality should be clearly defined
and suggest this include anything of 0.5 Joule or greater.
Everything lethal should be included in a licensing
system which requires a good reason to own any gun.
Gun
Control Network urges the Government to act now and tighten the controls
over airguns. As we show below the incident that led to Andrew Morton’s
death was not an isolated one and the danger signs have been there for a
long time. Neither was Andrew the first child to die from an
airgun pellet injury, and unless something is done urgently it is inevitable that
there will be more tragedies.
***
Andrew Morton’s death
did not result from an isolated airgun shooting
GCN continually monitors
media reports of incidents and court cases involving guns, which we
include on our website. Many of these concern airguns, and the list
below shows that in the past four months there have been a significant
number of reports about these weapons being used in a way that has put
members of the public at risk, with injuries occurring in a number of
instances.
Many of the shots have
been fired from private property where there are currently no controls
over airguns.
It was only a matter of
time before a pellet hit another especially vulnerable victim and
claimed his life.
South Wales Echo,
2 March 2005
A sniper targeted four bus passengers, including two
children, waiting at a bus stop in Pentrebane, Cardiff. When
police arrived they were seen to confiscate an
air rifle but witnesses were
surprised that no one was arrested. It is believed that the shots
came from a block of flats.
Sunderland Echo,
1 March 2005
A six-year-old boy almost blinded a 12-year-old girl
from Pallion when he shot her in the eye with a
ball-bearing gun. The victim was
playing with her friend when the boy aimed the weapon and fired at her
face. The police described it as "an unfortunate accident".
Sheffield Today,
1 March 2005
A pensioner was shot in the head as she walked home
from a Sheffield
bus stop. The pellet was fired from a
ball-bearing gun. The victim fainted with fear when she
felt the blow and saw blood streaming from an inch-long gash.
Huddersfield Daily Examiner,
22 February 2005
Three shots were fired at a church in
Huddersfield
during an evening service. The shots, thought to be from a
high-powered airgun, broke
double-glazed windows.
BBC,
22 February 2005
Three people suffered injuries after being shot at with
airgun pellets in
Gloucester.
One man needed treatment in hospital for wounds to his knee and elbow,
another was shot in the leg and medical staff have been unable to
remove the pellet.
BBC,
21 February 2005
A woman cycling along the A435 at Portway near
Redditch was fired at from a passing car and injured by a
pellet. She heard a cracking
sound as she and a friend were overtaken by a silver coloured Peugeot.
Pendle Today,
18 February 2005
Roger Baldwin discharged an
air pistol through his window,
which overlooked Colne cricket ground, during a match. A pellet
hit the ground near to the bowler, who had started his run up. He has
been given three years' detention.
Cambridge News,
15 February 2005
At least five people have been hit by
airgun pellets in a series of
shooting incidents in the Barton Road area of
Cambridge.
Eastbourne Today,
8 February 2005
Eastbourne Buses will not reinstate evening bus
services to the Shinewater estate which were suspended because
of attacks on buses, including one in which a teenager shot at a
window with an air rifle.
BBC,
5 February 2005
A firefighter was shot at with an
air rifle whilst tackling a blaze
in Stockwell, south London. He was hit close to the collarbone
but escaped serious injury. A gang of six youths was being sought.
Express & Star,
4 February 2005
Arron Ellis, 16, twice opened fire with an
air rifle on pupils at
Wodensborough Technology College in Wednesbury. He shot and
injured five children on a playing field in one attack in November
2004 and hit and injured a boy in December 2004. He admitted two
charges of common assault and asked for four identical offences to be
taken into consideration. He has been given an eight-month detention
and training order (Express & Star, 3 March 2005).
Manchester News,
4 February 2005
A Wythenshawe schoolboy was shot in the face
with an airgun in an unprovoked
attack as he waited for the bus home. The victim has blurred vision
in the injured eye.
icBerkshire,
3 February 2005
A schoolboy on a trip to the theatre in London was hit
in the leg with an airgun
pellet. The incident took place during the interval when the pupils
and staff were outside on the South Bank. The pellet was
removed in hospital the next day.
Sheffield Today,
1 February 2005
A mother was terrified when she was hit in the face by
a youth firing a pellet gun
whilst making a phone call in
Gleadless Valley.
A gang of around 20 youths had been firing paint bombs at the phone
booth before she was shot at.
BBC,
1 February 2005
In the past two months five people in
Fareham
and Gosport
have been hurt by being hit by plastic
ball bearings fired from a moving car. Police believe the
attacks are connected and have been carried out by a person or group
in a small silver hatchback.
BBC,
1 February 2005
A 68-year-old man was shot in the chest with an
airgun as he walked past three
youths in an alley in
Greenhithe,
Kent. He was treated in hospital for a cut but doctors told him he
could have died had the pellet hit his heart or lungs (This is
Local London, 9 February 2005).
Manchester News,
24 January 2005
A milkman sorting out crates in Cheadle was shot
in the face with an airgun.
The pellet, fired at pointblank range, lodged in his cheek. Five
teenagers produced the pistol and fired without warning.
BBC,
21 January 2005
A man and a teenager were arrested after a bus was shot
at, probably with an airgun, in
Stoke-on-Trent.
BBC,
20 January 2005
A man was arrested following reports of a number of
people, including a 14-year-old boy and his friend on their way to
school, being shot in
Telford
with an air rifle.
icCoventry,
18 January 2005
A commuter driving on the A46 at the
Marraway Island
was threatened by another
motorist who pulled up alongside and pointed a handgun at him through
an open window. An 18-year-old has been arrested and two
air pistols recovered by police,
one from a car the other from the arrested youth's home.
Leeds Today,
17 January 2005
An air rifle was
fired from a car at players during a brawl at an amateur Rugby League
game in Pontefract. Chequerfield fans had invaded the pitch
during a match with Bradford West Bowling. The trouble started when
members of the crowd chanted racial abuse at a West Bowling player.
The match was abandoned and the club have now been thrown out of the
competition (Guardian, 25 January 2005).
Eastern Daily Press,
11 January 2005
A married couple walking into
Norwich
city centre were shot at with an
air rifle from a block of flats.
They suffered minor injuries and were left shaken by the experience.
BBC,
9 January 2005
An air rifle was
fired randomly from a block of flats in Borehamwood. Three
people were hit by pellets. A woman in her 50s has been treated in
hospital for a head injury. The Borehamwood & Elstree Times
(January 14 2005) reported that a fourth victim, a man in his 50s, had
been shot in the shoulder and found an airgun pellet lodged in his
jacket. They also reported damage to windows and a front door in the
area.
Shropshire Star,
4 January 2005
A coach driver escaped injury when a missile was fired
through his windscreen as he left a
Telford
depot. It is believed that an air rifle
pellet shattered the windscreen.
Eastern Daily Press,
30 December 2004
In a report on a recent spate of vandalism and
anti-social behaviour in Mattishall the paper described how
air rifle pellets were fired at
the surgery, shattering a window.
Edinburgh Evening News,
27 December 2004
A teenager fired an airgun
pellet into the cab of a bus being driven through a housing
estate in Dalkeith. The pellet narrowly missed the driver.
Doncaster Today,
23 December 2004
Two 12-year-old boys were shot in the face with
BB guns at a school in Balby.
Four boys were arrested after the incident.
Stockport Express,
21 December 2004
A grandmother who was shot in the face with an
air rifle as she waited as a bus
stop in Stockport
on her way home
has supported calls to halt the underage sales of the weapons.
Evening Chronicle
(Newcastle),
18 December 2004
A teenager is almost completely blind in one eye after
being shot with an airgun by a
16-year-old youth in Ryton. The youth was convicted of
grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to 14 months in a young
offenders institution and made the subject of an anti-social behaviour
order for two years (Evening Chronicle, 20 January 2005).
Rochdale Observer,
17 December 2004
A four-month-old baby and her parents were lucky to
escape serious injury when their car was hit by an
airgun pellet in
Rochdale.
The back window of the car was completely shattered.
Grampian TV,
6 December 2004
A teenage girl was shot with an
airgun on the doorstep of her home
in Elgin.
She was hit in the chest as she went to put rubbish in a bin.
Epping Forest Guardian,
2 December 2004
A bus was attacked with what was probably a pellet from
a ball-bearing gun in
Nazeing. Glass door panels were shattered.
News and Star,
2 December 2004
A 13-year-old boy from
Dudley
needed emergency surgery to save his sight after being
shot in the eye by a 7-year-old brandishing a
ball-bearing gun. He is now back
at school after spending several days in hospital.
Daily Record,
30 November 2004
John McGuire, who was thrown out of a Chinese
restaurant in
Paisley for racist
abuse returned armed with an air rifle.
He threatened to shoot members of staff. He later pointed the gun at
police. Sentence was deferred after he admitted shouting racist abuse
and weapons charges.
Evening Gazette
(Middlesbrough),
27 November 2004
A 15-year-old boy has admitted a charge of unlawful
wounding after an incident in which a 13-year-old girl was shot with a
loaded air pistol. The pellet
entered her face close to her eye. The boy was clearer of deliberate
shooting as the jury at Teesside Crown Centre accepted his plea
that he did not know the air pistol was loaded and would not have
pulled the trigger if he had known.
Northampton Today,
25 November 2004
A 14-year-old boy was fighting for his life after
suffering a gunshot wound at his home in Quinton,
Northamptonshire. It is believed that the injury was sustained with
an air weapon.
Evening Times,
22 November 2004
Two teenagers, Jack Dunsmore and Kevin Holland, shot at
a 14-year-old boy with an air rifle
as he as walking into the playground of
Larkhall Academy.
The boy was forced to flee but was left with severe bruising to his
leg and was seriously shaken. The perpetrators were both former
pupils. Both are facing jail sentences after admitting possessing the
air rifle and firing it at their victim.
Derby Evening Telegraph,
22 November 2004
A house in Derby was surrounded for two hours
after a man allegedly fired an air rifle
and refused to hand over the weapon. A man was arrested. The
incident happened when environmental health workers from Derby City
Council were clearing a large pile of rubbish from the doorstep of the
house.
Huddersfield Daily Examiner,
18 November 2004
A bus driver was robbed after being threatened with a
handgun in Meltham. After the robbery he had to be taken to
hospital suffering from chest pains. It was the latest of a series of
attacks on buses in the village, including a possible
airgun attack in which four
windows were smashed. The First Bus company has imposed a night-time
curfew on buses going on to the Broadlands estate in Meltham.
Evening Times,
17 November 2004
Eleven-year-old Scott Heap was buried following a
family funeral. Scott was shot in the eye in the bedroom of his home
in Barlanark, Glasgow (Sunday Mail, 31 October 2004) and
died four days later. He and a school friend were playing with an
air pistol. The friend was
apparently not aware there was a pellet in the pistol and put it
against the boy's face and pulled the trigger.
BBC,
16 November 2004
A man died after being shot in the eye with an
air rifle at a flat in
Castleford. Police have charged a 20-year-old man with
manslaughter.
Evening News
(Norwich),
13 November 2004
A 12-year-old schoolgirl was shot in the leg whilst
talking to a friend outside a school in
Norwich.
Police believe an air weapon
was used.
BBC,
13 November 2004
A man was arrested after two people were shot with a
BB gun in
Manchester
city centre. One of the victims
suffered minor eye injuries after being shot in a bar; the other
victim was shot in the face in a restaurant.
Derby Evening Telegraph,
5 November 2004
A man suffered a pellet
wound in his leg after being shot whilst walking home from
a pub in Derby.
icCoventry,
5 November 2004
A couple from
Kenilworth
were shocked to discover that someone had fired an
airgun at the home. The shot
appeared to have been fired from an alleyway at the back of the house.
Express and Star,
4 November 2004
Pensioners on two Stourbridge estates are being
terrorised by vandals who throw bricks and fire
airgun pellets at their homes.
Guardian,
3 November 2004
Six people were arrested on suspicion of wounding after
a teenager was shot with an air rifle
in Kensington, Merseyside.
Not included in the list are any of the numerous
incidents in which animals have been shot.
3 February 2005
Gun
Crime Figures Highlight Urgent Need for More Action on Imitation Guns
Since this Press Release was written a further set of gun
crime data for England and Wales has been released. The data show that
the trend of falling crime with handguns, shotguns and rifles continues but
that it is being offset by increased crime with imitation guns (Click
here for more details).
Gun crime in Britain, although lower
than in many other countries, remains at an unacceptably high level. As Paul
Evans, who heads the Home Office's police standards unit, recently told the
Commons home affairs committee it needs to be "nipped in the bud before it
snowballs out of control". So it is important to focus in particular
on those areas of gun crime that are increasing.
The latest confirmed figures for
England and Wales, contained in the Crime in England and Wales 2003/2004
report published last week, have shown that the total number of offences has
increased again, but that the rate of increase has slowed significantly.
The total number of offences was up by 24 (less than 0.1%).
There were 68 gun homicides, the lowest figure in 4 years, and offences with
handguns fell by over 7% (a 12% fall in two years). The level of
gun crime is too high, but our strict gun laws do ensure that the British
population is less at risk from gun crime than those of most other
countries.
There were, however, big increases in
two categories, the use of imitation firearms (331 (18%) more offences) and
the use of a category termed Other firearms, which the Home Office indicates
are mainly paintball guns (196 (27%) more offences). If these two
categories were excluded, gun crime actually fell by over 2%. Since offences
committed with imitation handguns that have been converted to fire live
ammunition are currently designated as handgun crime, the handgun figure
would be even lower were converted weapons to be included elsewhere.
Imitation guns are still legally available and not all convertible guns have
been banned.
Whilst progress is being made with
tackling many of the problems surrounding gun crime it is clear that the
limited action taken by the Government with respect to imitation guns has
restricted progress.
Since incidents involving imitation
guns were first recorded separately in 1998/99 there has been a huge
3.8-fold increase in the number of recorded crimes in which they have been
involved. This is intolerable and should not have occurred.
The latest data lend further weight to
GCN’s case that the easy availability of imitation guns is making a
significant contribution to the current level of gun crime and especially to
the fear induced by gun crime. Being confronted with an imitation gun will
be as frightening as if it were real: it is too difficult to tell the
difference. The ease with which imitation guns can be obtained, coupled with
the lack of willingness on the part of Government to deal with this,
undermines the progress made on handgun crime since the latter were banned.
GCN has now written to the Home
Secretary highlighting the imitation gun crime figures and putting the case
yet again for a ban on the import, manufacture and sale of these unnecessary
weapons. A number of campaigns are already underway throughout the
country, and the Government should take note of the strength of feeling on
this issue. We would like to see everyone concerned about gun crime,
including the Government's political opponents, put their weight behind
GCN’s campaign to have the sale of all imitation guns prohibited. The Police
Federation has recently adopted an even stronger position and is advocating
a ban on their ownership as well (from a date to be set in the future).
Our comments are based largely on one
of two sets of figures for England and Wales released by the Home Office
last week. However, another set was contained within the Quarterly Update to
September 2004. These were provisional data and exclude crimes with airguns.
Although these showed a larger increase in gun crime (5 percent), once again
this was due entirely to a large rise in crimes involving those categories
of weapon highlighted above i.e. imitation firearms (up by 48%) and other
firearms (up by 41%). In the absence of these categories, gun crime would
have fallen by 10 percent. Those in the media who commented on these
provisional data mentioned the increase in crime with imitation guns but
fewer highlighted the fact that, but for this avoidable contribution, gun
crime could now be falling significantly. The Government must take action.
Until there is a concerted effort to
limit the availability of all types of gun, they will continue to fall into
the wrong hands and gun crime will remain a significant problem. No
one can commit gun crime unless they can get hold of a gun, so why can't the
Government stop making it so easy.
29 September 2004
eBay Gun Sales
Highlighting the Dangers
Inherent in Internet Gun Sales
Gun Control Network wishes to
draw attention to gun sales linked to the eBay website.
eBay
policy states “firearms cannot be listed on eBay.co.uk regardless of their
capability to fire a shot”. GCN has evidence, however, of the recent
listing and sale, via the website, of firearms as also hundreds of
ball-bearing (BB) guns and airguns that are “not permitted” under their
related items policy. Deactivated guns, replicas and blank-firing guns
are regularly auctioned.
Linda Mitchell of GCN says "We
are appalled that eBay is unable to police its own policy. Encouraging the
general public to report prohibited items for removal seems only to ensure
that guns are sold before eBay is aware of them. The perception of
eBay as a fun and harmless pastime remains intact, whilst in reality there
is growing police and public concern that a child will be shot brandishing a
gun purchased on the internet.
GCN fully supports the efforts
of Steve McCabe MP to highlight the dangers inherent in internet gun sales.
For full details
click here
14 November 2002
Death by Imitation
Gun Control Network Launch New Campaign
The Gun Control Network (GCN) has produced a
series of 5 advertisements designed to bring to public awareness the dangers
of imitation weapons. The ads, which will appear on hoardings across
London from mid-November, feature hard-hitting images which graphically
illustrate how it is impossible to distinguish between real and imitation
weapons, and how – for as little as £50 – an imitation handgun can be
converted into a lethal firearm.
On
Wednesday 20 November, MPs together with members of GCN and
related groups will officially launch the poster campaign at a hoarding
across the river from the Houses of Parliament. Also present will be the
organisers of the Mothers against Guns National March on 30 November
.
Photocall: 10.30am, 20/11/02, Hercules Rd, London SE1 (Lambeth North tube)
Unable to
tell if the gun is real or a replica, victims of gun crime experience the
same fear and trauma regardless. Police estimate that 65-80% of all firearm
crime is committed with imitation guns and acknowledge that even they are
unable to differentiate between real and imitation weapons. Armed response
vehicles must be mobilised in every incident, resulting in unnecessary use
of police resources and greater risk of someone getting shot.
The success of the 1997 ban
on handguns is being undermined by a loophole in the law which allows all
major gun manufacturers to make exact replicas under licence. The GCN is
now calling for a ban on the sale, import and manufacture of these imitation
weapons, which have no legitimate social purpose.
The Firearms Consultative
Committee’s suggestion to ban the possession of imitation weapons in a
public place is insufficient since it is already an offence under the
Prevention of Crime Act 1953 to carry an article adapted or intended to
cause injury (which may include shock).
Much has been made of the
difficulty of defining an 'imitation firearm' but this is clearly set out in
section 57 of the 1968 Firearms Act which says that an imitation firearm is
'anything which has the appearance of being a firearm… whether or not it is
capable of discharging any shot, bullet or other missile'.
Courts and juries are well
able to decide what distinguishes a child's toy and if they cannot then the
item they are considering should rightly be proscribed.
The Gun Control Network
was established as a small campaigning organisation in July 1996 in the
aftermath of the Dunblane tragedy. Founded by lawyers, academics and the
parents of victims killed in Dunblane and Hungerford, it was the first, and
remains the only, gun control organisation in the UK. GCN is committed to
campaigning for tighter controls on guns of all kinds and a greater
awareness of the dangers associated with gun ownership and use. It is also
the lone voice for gun control on the Firearms Consultative Committee.
The Firearms Consultative Committee
is statutorily constituted to give advice to the Home Secretary about
firearms matters and has in the past been instrumental in the gradual
erosion of regulations and the easing of certification procedures for
shooters. It consisted of representatives of all the various shooting
organisations and the police. GCN campaigned for the abolition of the FCC or
its radical reconstitution to ensure that, if it continued to exist, it
should represent the interests of victims, the medical profession, community
groups and the wider public, not just the police and the shooters. Some
small changes to its composition have been implemented but it remains
overwhelmingly a body which reflects the views of shooters, the police and
government agencies. In no way is it representative of the balance of views
in the general population.
Mothers Against Guns and
Southwark Community Against Guns are organising a national march to back
up their petition of over 25,000 signatures calling for higher sentencing
for gun offences. On November 30th people from all over the
country will march in silence from Camberwell to Peckham.
> View the
Posters
September 2002
Campaign for
Airgun Control - Protecting Children from Airguns
Jubilee Room, House of
Commons
Wednesday 18 September
2002, 10.00am
Victims, campaigning groups
and MPs from around the country will come together to press the
government to take action on the growing problem of airguns.
-
Airgun crime is escalating.
7506 incidents in 1997 - 10,227 in 2001/2.
-
Hundreds of children are being
injured - and occasionally some are killed - by airguns.
-
Thousands of birds and animals are
killed and injured every year.
-
Airguns are freely available in
toyshops, army surplus stores, car boot sales, market stalls and by
mail order and the internet. No certification is required.
-
Many airguns can be easily
converted to firing real bullets e.g. the Brocock.
-
Most air pistols look like real
lethal handguns and are regularly mistaken for them.
-
On the basis of the Firearms
Consultative Committee's proposed definition of 'lethality' most
airguns should be considered 'lethal weapons' and be registered.
-
The Home Affairs Committee in its
report into Controls over Firearms in April 2000 recommended
certification and a minimum age limit for airgun possession and use.
The government rejected that proposal.
The Campaign for Airgun
Control has been established as an
umbrella group to press for legislation which would:
-
Set a minimum age limit of 17 for
the purchase, sale and use of airguns defined as 'lethal'.
-
Introduce a unified registration
system for all guns defined as 'lethal'.
Ban the sale, import and
manufacture of imitation weapons and their possession in a public
place.
23 January 2002
'Lookalike' Guns
After Dunblane in 1996 the civilian ownership and use of handguns was
banned but nothing was done about weapons that look exactly like the
real thing.
It
is still easy to buy a range of guns that are not lethal weapons but are
visually indistinguishable from the real thing. They may fire
pellets, or ball bearings or nothing at all. They can be bought in toy
shops, sports shops, camping shops and market stalls. No
registration is required and no identification of the buyer. Some of
them are easy to convert into lethal weapons which fire bullets.
Recent research by Durham University revealed that the market in
‘lookalikes’ (including air pistols) had increased by 50% in the last
two years.
Most
developed countries have laws to restrict these weapons but the UK does
not.
Gill
Marshall-Andrews, Chair of the Gun Control Network, says:
"
'Lookalike' guns have been a real problem for a long time and we should
have done something about it years ago. Other countries control
these weapons and by doing nothing we have allowed ourselves to slide
into a crisis of our own making.
"For
years police have known that over half of all firearms crime involves
imitation or lookalike weapons being used to threaten and frighten
people. Now we are seeing them being converted into lethal weapons the
proportion must be much higher and its certainly a much more serious
problem.
"The Gun Control Network has been campaigning for a
ban on the sale, manufacture and import of these weapons ever since
Dunblane. We know that wouldn’t solve the problem because we wont be
able to do anything about the hundreds of thousands of imitations
already in circulation but we can try to stop the problem getting
any worse. We have drafted a simple amendment to the Firearms Act 1968
which the government could make time for tomorrow if it wanted to.
MPs would support it and so would the general public."
14 July 2001
"He who pays the piper calls
the tune": Illegal Firearms in the UK
The Kings College Centre for Defence Studies
releases a report on Monday 16 July which it claims proves that Britain’s
gun laws aren’t working. It argues that the criminal use of handguns has
increased by 40% since 1997 and that legal guns are not part of the problem.
The research is funded by the Countryside
Alliance’s Campaign for Shooting.
Gill Marshall-Andrews of the Gun Control
Network makes the following comment:
“There are no great surprises here. Of course
illegal guns are a big problem and we all want the police to clamp down on
criminals who own and use them. But we mustn’t forget that almost all
illegal guns start out legal so it’s not easy to draw a neat line between
the two as the shooters would like.
We know, for instance, that around 1000
firearms are stolen each year from their private owners. We also know that
police investigations have unearthed many cases of unscrupulous firearms
dealers feeding weapons into criminal circles. Sir Paul Condon former
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police suggested in 1996 that 70% of
criminal firearms seized by the police in London originated with lawful
dealers. Add to this the evidence presented to the Cullen Enquiry in 1996
which suggested that around 14% of people killed with guns are killed with
legal guns and you can see that legal guns are clearly part of the problem.
Creating a safe society has got to be about cutting down on illegal and
legal weaponry.
As to the raw statistic that the criminal use
of handguns has increased by almost 40% in the last 3 years this is a crude
example of how statistics can lie. In 1993 the criminal use of handguns
peaked at 4273 offences and it has been fluctuating up and down since then.
There was a sharp drop after Dunblane in 1997 since when the number has been
creeping back up again as the horror of Dunblane fades. It now stands at
3685 offences in 2000 so the claim of a 40% increase is little more than a
headline-grabbing statistic. What is more even the raw figures of handgun
use are highly doubtful – police say that up to 50% of firearms offences are
likely to have been committed with imitation weapons, which GCN has been
campaigning to ban.
But that doesn’t mean
there is cause for complacency. We know that handguns are the preferred
weapon for some kinds of criminal, particularly the drug gangs in large
cities, and we must remain on our guard against the kind of gun culture that
is creeping over from the US, promoted by the violence we see on screen. We
need the tight gun controls we have in this country to ensure that we never
end up like America where over 30,000 people die by the gun every year. In
the UK 42 people were murdered by handguns last year and only 4.7% of
violent crime is committed with a gun of any kind compared with over 80% in
the US.
If
we want to hold gun crime down in this country the last thing we should do
is relax our gun laws and if shooters want to see this happen then they are
seriously out of touch with public opinion.”
4 June 2001
Response to an Article in The Independent
According to an article in The Independent on 4 June 2001
(Tories in Marginals back Repeal of Gun Ban), a number of Tory candidates in
the recent election were supporting a campaign by The Sportsman's Association
to repeal the 1997 Firearms (Amendment) Acts which resulted in a ban on the
private ownership of handguns. The Sportsman's Association’s website says
that “Several Tory candidates …came out very strongly in support of
shooting”.
Handguns were banned after the horrific shooting of the Primary One class at
Dunblane Primary School in March 1996, and the measures introduced by both
Conservative and Labour governments in 1997 were supported by the vast
majority of the British public. Now, as one candidate is quoted as saying,
some Tories wish to return to the pre-Dunblane situation. Gun Control
Network is appalled that the candidates of any party would support such a
retrograde step and one that would once again compromise public safety for
the sake of a minority’s pastime. Gun Control Network urges those millions
of the electorate who hoped that private ownership of handguns in Britain
was a thing of the past to consider carefully the implications of voting for
a Conservative candidate. He or she may support the return of handguns into
private hands and all the dangers that would accompany it.
4 October 2000
Comment on the Government's Response to the Home Affairs Committee's
Report on Firearms
The Gun Control Network is disappointed
with the government’s response to the Home Affairs Committee’s
recommendations.
Gill Marshall-Andrews, Chair of GCN says:
“There are some good things in this
report but the government has bottled out on the three big issues – age
limits, ‘look-alike’ guns and airguns.
First, it will still be possible for
children of any age to use guns in clubs and on private
property. Although these children are supposed to be supervised
the government itself recognises that it is difficult to enforce
appropriate supervision. So we will still be seeing young
children, supposedly supervised, using lethal weapons perfectly legally.
This should stop. We have proposed a minimum age limit of 18 for
the use of all guns.
Second, not enough is to be done about
the huge growth in ‘look-alike’ guns. These are guns which
look exactly like the real thing but which are in fact sold as toys or
imitations. Anyone can buy them – in toyshops,
hardware shops or even camera shops. There are no restrictions on
them and yet they can be used in crime to frighten and intimidate
people. The government’s plan to ban the sale of imitations to
people under 18 is not an adequate response. Anything that looks
like a gun should be treated like one. That means if it looks like
a handgun it should be banned.
Third, there is the vexed question of
licensing airguns. Although we are disappointed that they
are not going to license all airguns, we hope that the definition of a
‘lethal weapon’ will be such as to require the certification of a large
number of airguns that are not currently within the licensing system.
We urge the
government to reconsider these issues before the next election. We
are confident that there will be huge public support for our proposals"
January 1997
The Handgun Debate Continues
Gun Control Network Unveils New
Poster Urging Lords Not To Give In To Gun Lobby
Date: 15th January
1997
Time: 11.00 am
Venue: Adjacent to Vauxhall Tube Station At the junction of
Wandsworth Road and Vauxhall Bridge Road
On the eve of the Lords debate on the Firearms (Amendment) Bill,
cross party MPs, including Jack Straw, will unveil powerful new posters
highlighting the lethal nature of .22 handguns.
The hard hitting posters draw attention to Robert Kennedy's
assassination with a .22 handgun.
The Gun Control Network was established in the aftermath of the Dunblane
tragedy with the aim of campaigning for tighter gun controls generally and a
total handgun ban in particular.
A number of amendments will be debated by the Lords which would have the
effect of watering down the proposed legislation - just as happened after
Hungerford. Will the government give in to the gun lobby again?
The Gun Control Network comments:
"The government's new
Firearms (Amendment) Bill is already weaker than most people would like. We
must make sure that it is not weakened further by the Lords".
