SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
Policing gun crime
We conclude that the universal arming of police
should not be introduced. (Paragraph 8)
We recommend the numbers of Authorised Firearms
Officers should be increased to ensure the police have adequate armed
units on-call to continue more targeted operations. (Paragraph 9)
We recommend a review of the procedures following
an incident involving the use of firearms by the police to ensure
that police officers return quickly to operational duty unless there
are good grounds for believing that a serious breach of discipline
or offence has occurred. (Paragraph 10)
We recommend that police forces improve
coordination and information exchange on the issue of gun crime at
an operational level. (Paragraph 13)
Comprehensive witness protection schemes should
be extended to gun crime incidents in order to gain the trust of
communities and secure more convictions. Increased financial support
should be made available to the police, local authorities and social
services to allow witnesses of gun violence to be protected and
offered relocation. (Paragraph 14)
We note that there is a perception that the
police are not prosecuting perpetrators of gun crime because of
their role as informants. We recommend that the police explain and
review their system of informants regarding gun crime and address
the detrimental effect this appears to be having on the public's
trust of the police. (Paragraph 16)
Hospitals and all medical practitioners and
establishments should be obliged to report gunshot wounds to the
police. We fully support the guidance issued by the General Medical
Council to their members in September
2003
to
report gunshot wounds to the police. (Paragraph 17)
The Government should continue to support
community-led initiatives working in partnership with police and
local authorities on gun crime to help leaders of various
communities to tackle gun violence in their areas. (Paragraph
19)
Legislation
We recognise that there is a strong
case
for
a ban on the manufacture, sale, transfer and importation of all
imitation weapons, not withstanding perceived difficulties in
relation to definition and enforcement. We further believe that the
ease with which imitation weapons can be obtained through a variety
of methods of sale should be immediately addressed (Paragraph
33)
We recommend that all deactivated weapons
imported into the UK or transferred domestically must be deactivated
to the post-1995 standard. (Paragraph 30)
We recommend that the government amend the Anti
Social Behaviour Bill to universalise the minimum age for possession
and use of airguns to 17 years old. (Paragraph 25)
We recommend that the courts ensure that
penalties in cases of airgun misuse are enforced. (Paragraph
28)
We welcome the steps taken by the
Government in the Anti Social Behaviour Bill (2003) to ban the sale,
Importation and distribution of Air Cartridge weapons. However we
are aware that this will leave large
numbers of convertible air weapons already owned by
the public in circulation.
We
therefore recommend that the law be reviewed after two years of
implementation to assess whether the new licensing regime has
reduced the criminal use of
converted air weapons and whether further
controls are necessary.
(Paragraph 27)
We recommend that gun crime
statistics should
be released on a quarterly basis to give a more
accurate assessment of the current levels of crime for the law
enforcement agencies and the public.
(Paragraph
34)
We
recommend that the Home Office
clarify
the objectives of its gun crime fund and layout the criteria on
which it bases its
funding decisions in order to make
it easier
for community groups to access resources.
We
propose this fund should be permanently established and Its
level reviewed
annually to ensure It is providing adequate
support to community gun crime initiatives.
(Paragraph
35)
International dimension to gun crime
We recommend that UK Customs and Excise
prioritise the issue of
illegal Importation of illicit firearms and parts
and include intelligence gathering on the subject
as part of their business
plan. (Paragraph 40)
We
recommend that there is a review of Customs clearance of parcels
entering the UK via
private companies. (Paragraph
40)
We
recommend that there is
greater inter agency cooperation between
UK police
and intelligence services and law enforcement
agencies from other countries.
(Paragraph
39)
The Government and its EU partners
should increase their
work with
EU applicant
countries to tighten their arms
export
controls before they are admitted
to the EU. (Paragraph 42)
The Government should
support initiatives to remove weapons from
circulation in the source
countries, Improve management of
government stockpiles and address arms trafficking. (Paragraph
41)
The Government should honour its election
manifesto commitment and implement full extra territorial controls
on UK arms brokers
operating abroad. (Paragraph 44)
The Report was published by Saferworld,
Secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group in association with
the Gun Control Network
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GCN's Response to the Report
