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)).

• The rise in recorded levels of gun crime over the last ten years has been largely due to imitation weapons (3300 more offences per year out of an increase of 9100 offences) and airguns (2500 more offences per year).  These figures probably underestimate the number of imitation guns involved.

• 25% of all serious gun injuries are committed with airguns which are still not registered in any way.

• According to the latest Home Office statistics in the last year gun crime involving every category of gun has fallen e.g. handgun crime is down by 11%.  Handgun offences peaked in 2001/02 and have fallen by 30% since then.

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.