AIRGUN OWNERSHIP AND CHILDREN
26 August 2008
The
tragic shooting of the toddler Rashid Rullah highlights once again the
terrible consequences of the ‘boys’ toys’ culture surrounding airgun
ownership. This culture results in easy access, casual regard and
non-accountability.
Because
airguns are not treated as ‘real’ weapons they are not thought worthy of
registration or regulation. They are not taken seriously.
Yet
they are responsible for around half of all firearms offences and over a
quarter (1054 in 2006/7) of all serious firearms injuries.
Children pick up air weapons that are left lying around and use them to
kill, blind and injure other children, often siblings or friends. The
adults who own these guns are rarely held to account. There is no law
requiring them to store their weapons safely nor is there any record of
ownership. The terrible tragedies of Rashid, Mitchel, Alex, Danny S,
Danny M, David, George, Kazim, Lorna, Matthew, Micah, Nicola, Somma and
others are not merely ‘accidents’. They are preventable and culpable
incidents.
Two
years ago twelve-year-old Mitchel Picken was killed by another child while
friends played around with a father’s air weapon. Had this gun been
properly secured Mitchel would be alive today. His parents join the Gun
Control Network in calling upon Government to bring in legislation to
register airguns and their owners, and make them liable for the misuse of
their weapons.
Andrew
Picken, Mitchel’s father, says ‘The irresponsibility of an air gun
owner has once again led to the shooting of a young child. The Government
cannot hide behind recent changes in legislation, which failed to take the
airgun problem seriously enough and make owners responsible for storing
their weapons safely. Airguns and their owners could be registered, and
they should be.’
TORIES ARE 'ECONOMICAL WITH THE TRUTH' ABOUT GUN
CRIME
4 October 2007
BEFORE AND DURING the Conservative Party
conference the two Davids - Cameron and Davis - have repeatedly referred
to gun crime as being 'out of control'.
This works as a headline-grabbing
statement but it is not true.
These are the facts (figures quoted are
for England and Wales):
-
Gun murders remain very low by
international standards, with fluctuations between 49 and 97 annually in
the last ten years. The most recent provisional figure (for 2006/07) is
58. This compares with 11,624 gun homicides in the USA (in 2004), a rate
which is nearly 40 times higher. In France the rate is more than twice
that in Britain, in Switzerland over three-fold higher, while in Italy
it is over 5 times greater (Source:
Global Gun Deaths (Toronto Small
Arms/Firearms Education and Research Network, 2005)).
It is clear that the Conservatives are
whipping up public fear about gun crime for their own narrow political
interests. The public interest is not served by these wild and
unfounded statements. They are fuelling the 'fear factor' and making
the general public more fearful of gun crime than they should be.
Gun crime is a problem, particularly in major cities, and it is true
that we need to control guns ever more tightly.
But gun crime is NOT out of control and it is irresponsible of David
Cameron and David Davis to suggest it is.
