APRIL 2007 - SUMMARY

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Gun Control Network understands that despite the Violent Crime Reduction Act receiving its Royal Assent in November 2006, various measures in the Act, in particular those which ban the sale of imitation guns and restrict airgun sales to registered dealers, will not now be implemented until the autumn.  Those who have allowed this delay to occur should be ashamed as it will mean that even more of these weapons will be in the hands of those who are likely to misuse them, especially young people.  As this Summary shows, while much of the more serious gun crime is confined to inner city areas, that involving imitation guns and airguns affects communities throughout the country.

• Gun Deaths and Injuries - A pregnant woman and a 12-year-old girl were among the four victims who died after being shot in April.  The woman died in Battersea, the victim of one of two more fatal shootings in south London: the other took place in Brixton where a man was killed.  A man was fatally injured when he was shot in a restaurant in Harehills (Leeds).  A 12-year-old girl died in hospital a few hours after being shot in the head at a house in Gorton (Greater Manchester) - her 16-year-old brother has been arrested.

• Another man died of gunshot wounds in Wincle (Lancashire) though police were not treating the death as suspicious.

• There were other shootings in London.  Two teenagers, one aged 19 and another aged 14, were injured in separate drive-by shootings in Plaistow (east London) - the 19-year-old was critically ill.  In another east London shooting a man was injured whilst being chased by two men in Leyton.  Police who stopped a car on the Woodbury Down Estate (Manor House, north London) found that the passenger had been shot in the leg.

• In Liverpool a man was shot in the back in a street in Toxteth.  A woman was shot in the face in an attack in Broomhall (Sheffield) - police believe her companion was the intended victim.

• A man received minor injuries after he was shot in his car in Burnage (Greater Manchester).  A man was shot whilst driving in Glasgow and crashed his car into another vehicle.

• A man was shot and seriously injured whilst at a party at a flat in Leicester.

• A number of other victims sustained injuries in attacks with airguns and BB guns (see Details below).

• Armed Hold-Ups and Assaults - A man was robbed on the street at gunpoint by a masked gunman in Bow (east London).

• A car was hijacked at gunpoint by a man in Littlehampton (Sussex): a man has been arrested.  A motor home owner foiled an attempt by a gunman to steal the vehicle in Upton Scudamore (Wiltshire).

• A man delivering cash to ATM machines at a Bedford supermarket was forced to hand over a large amount of cash when threatened with a sawn-off shotgun.  In Gorse Covert (Warrington) a gunman stole cash being collected from a shop by a security man.

• There were reports of robberies or attempted robberies on a betting shop in Horwich (Greater Manchester), a post office in Bangor (a woman was shot with an airgun during the raid), a pub in West Bridgford (Nottingham) and a shop in Swindon (involving two young girls).  A petrol station was robbed in Andoversford (Gloucestershire).  Another fast-food outlet was robbed at gunpoint in Portsmouth, the latest in a number of similar robberies in the city this year.

• Other Incidents - Three men were arrested after a gun was fired at a house in Grangetown (Middlesbrough).

• A single gunshot was fired from a car at a house in Muirhouse Green (Edinburgh).

• A man was arrested on suspicion of a number of firearms offences after a 10-hour siege on a house in Exeter.

• Gun Finds - Twelve people were arrested and one firearm recovered after raids on more than 200 homes in Manchester.  Four people were charged for possession of imitation firearms, a prohibited weapon and a firearm without certificate in a crackdown on gun crime in Salford.  Two BB guns were seized in Ipswich in raids targeting drug suspects.

• Three guns were found during raids in Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, during which a number of people were arrested, one of them for firearms and drug offences.

• A First World War pistol was found and two suspects arrested, and another pistol and ammunition recovered, during police raids in Southwark (south London).

• An air rifle was seized during a crackdown on crime in Nottingham.

• Convictions (see also Imitation Guns and Airgun Incidents) - A man who had already been convicted of one murder in Merseyside was sentenced to ten more years in prison for wounding a former friend in a drive-by shooting in Toxteth.

• A man was jailed for life for his part in the murder of a man in Marsden (Tyneside) - he admitted luring the victim to the murder location but denied firing the fatal shots.

• A sentence of over five years was given to a man who shot and injured a police officer who had chased him after a car crash in Peckham (south London).  A four year sentence was given to a man who used a firearm (a sawn-off gun) to resist arrest during an incident in Merthyr Tydfil.

• A man was jailed for eight and a half years for raping a woman at gunpoint in her Cheshunt (Hertfordshire) home.

• A man is facing a 5 year jail sentence after admitting possessing a prohibited revolver, whose serial number he had swapped with a legal, deactivated gun, at his house in Lochgilphead (Argyllshire).  A Denbighshire gun enthusiast was jailed for four-and-a-half years after admitting dealing in prohibited weapons.

• A man was sentenced to seven years in prison for the possession of an arsenal of guns and ammunition in Manchester.

• Airguns - Those who use airguns to fire at people target their victims regardless of age.  In Allesley (Coventry) an 8-year-old boy was hit in the head with a pellet whilst playing in his bedroom with a friend - the gunman was spotted by the boy's mother leaning out of the window of a nearby flat.  A 75-year-old man was shot in the face with an air rifle pellet whilst visiting a hospital in South Shields (Tyneside) - three teenagers have been arrested.

• Three more young boys were hit in the head with air weapons and needed hospital treatment.  One, who was cycling in Hebburn (Tyneside), received serious injuries after being shot in the face, another boy was shot whilst in a field in Derby, and a pupil at a school in Easterhouse (Glasgow) was shot in the face (a 14-year-old was charged).

• An 18-year-old female cyclist was shot with an air rifle whilst on a bike ride in Hook (East Yorkshire) - a group of youths is believed to have been responsible.

• During one of two apparently separate airgun incidents in Bangor (Gwynedd) a woman was shot and injured during a robbery on a post office (she needed hospital treatment) - two men have been arrested.  In the other incident there were unconfirmed reports that a man had been shot with an airgun - a man was arrested in connection with this incident.

• A photographer was hit in the back of the head after an airgun was fired at a nightclub in Mayfair (central London).

• A group of youths threatened another group with an air rifle in Carlisle.

• Police were called to investigate reports of a man firing an air rifle in public on waste land in Brighton.

• Youngsters fired an airgun at a passing train in Bolton.  A taxi was hit with a shower of missiles in an attack by youths in Widnes - the damage indicated an airgun had been used by the attackers.  In Aberdeen taxis and buses appear to have been targeted with airguns - some of the vehicles were damaged.

• Airgun pellets were fired into the back garden of a house in Rubery (West Midlands).

• Convictions for Incidents Involving Airguns - A father pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his son whom he had shot in a Salford street with a modified air rifle - police say that the victim was lucky to have survived.

• A 17-year-old from Greenock has admitted shooting a 16-year-old boy and terrifying three shop assistants with an air pistol whilst he subject to an anti-social behaviour order.

• A man was given an eight-month jail sentence after an incident in which he threatened a neighbour in Nelson (Lancashire) with an air pistol and fired two shots.

• Three teenagers were sent to a young offenders' institution for two years for attacking a man during a burglary in Saffron Waldon (Essex) in which they were armed with an air rifle.

• A man who shot himself in the head with a converted Brocock airgun during a weekend of heavy drinking in Bromley (Kent) was given an 11-month suspended sentence.

• A man caught in possession of an air weapon in a public place in Shrewsbury was given 100 hours of community service.

• Imitation Guns - This month's victims included a baby shot through the letter box of his home in Poplar (east London) with a BB guns - a 14-year-old has been arrested.

• In the latest attack on schoolchildren three schoolgirls were shot with a BB gun by two 13-year-old boys in Blackburn - one victim is fortunate not to have been blinded.  A 10-year-old was hit when two men, both with BB guns, fired at pedestrians in Ingoldmells (Lincolnshire).

• A retired Blackburn man was attacked in a park by a youth armed with a gun whose friends eventually pulled off the attacker and told the victim that it was not a real gun.

• A 13-year-old threatened a bus driver in Hampton Court (Middlesex) by pointing a toy gun at her.

• Two unarmed police officers arrested a man who chased terrified people in a Derby street whilst armed with an exact replica of a sub-machine gun.  Ten BB guns, including ones resembling assault rifles and a shotgun, were recovered by police after four men were seen brandishing firearms in a picnic area in Felixstowe.  Sussex police were called to incidents in Portslade and Hollingdean involving youths seen with BB guns in public.  South Yorkshire police described an incident in Thurcroft, to which an armed response team had to be called, that involved youths firing a BB gun and a plastic assault rifle indiscriminately.

• Two BB guns were recovered after armed police surrounded a tower block in Havant (Hampshire) after reports of two gunmen - two men were arrested.

• BB guns were apparently used when a house was trashed during a party in Houghton-le-Spring (County Durham).

• In Lancashire damage was caused to a parked car in Colne after a pellet was fired from a BB gun, while another BB gun was used to smash a window at a home in Leyland.

• A man faced charges after causing damage in a drive-by shooting rampage with a paintball gun in Dalton (Cumbria).

• Two teenagers from Ellesmere Port (Cheshire) were charged with possession of an imitation firearm after mobile phone footage of a group brandishing guns was discovered.

• Two people charged in a crackdown on gun crime in Salford have been accused of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.  Two BB guns were seized by Ipswich police in an operation focused on drug suspects who frequent the area (see Gun Finds above).

• Convictions for Incidents Involving Imitation Guns - A man who had escaped from custody whilst serving a life sentence evaded the police on a later occasion by pointing a BB gun at them in Salford - he was recaptured a few days later.  A 16-year-old pointed a BB gun at police officers in Sutton-in-Ashfield (Nottinghamshire) and was sentenced to 18 months' detention and training.

• A man who held a gun at the heads of three young people in Lowestoft was sentenced to a 10-month detention order.

• A 16-year-old who threatened a shopkeeper in Stockport with a realistic-looking ball-bearing gun was given a rehabilitation order.

• A man has admitted presenting a firearm or imitation firearm (a starting pistol) whilst demanding a kebab at a Glasgow takeaway.

• Incidents Involving Animals - There were yet more reports of cats and swans being shot with airguns and also details of an incident in which a horse was shot by youths in a field in County Durham.

 

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