EACH JANUARY the Home Office releases two
sets of gun crime data for England and Wales. A Quarterly
Report provides provisional data on gun offences, excepting those
involving airguns, for the year ending the previous September.
A more detailed set of statistics, which includes airgun offences, is
found in an Annual Report for the year ending the previous
March. This year the latter was largely overlooked by the
media.
The latest Annual report showed that
between April 2006 and March 2007 there were significant falls in almost
all categories of gun crime. Firearms were used in 0.3 per cent of
all recorded crimes, or one in every 300. The overall number of offences fell
for the third year in a row, decreasing by 14 per cent to 18,459, the
lowest figure for six years. Air weapons were reported to have
been used in 8,839 recorded crimes, a decrease of 15 per cent from the
previous year, the lowest number of offences since 1998/99.
Serious injuries also decreased significantly, by 12% to 566.
Following a previous 30 per cent decrease in the number of offences involving
handguns causing injury there was a further 23 per cent reduction in 2006/07.
Despite this clear evidence of a decrease
in gun crime the data were little reported. More attention had
been paid to the Quarterly Report figures which had shown a four per
cent increase in the number of offences, largely as a result of a rise in incidents involving no injury or slight injury.
The number of serious injuries had, however, continued to fall (see
Data).
Whilst it could be argued that the
Quarterly Report had provided the more recent data, there is little doubt
that many in the media seem only to report gun crime when it is
increasing. This fits with an agenda which promotes the erroneous
view from many commentators and politicians that gun crime in this
country is currently
spinning out of control. The data do not bear this
out, but by selective reporting the general public is too frequently
left with impression that gun crime is continuously getting worse.
The overall trends for the last few years
have been downwards. This does not mean there is any room for complacency since
there are still too many incidents, especially involving youths, and
more action is needed by Government, law enforcement agencies and
communities. But appropriate debate can only take place if the
official figures are given honest interpretation.
