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05/10/03 - Gun crime spreads
'like a cancer' across Britain
Tony Thompson
The Observer
Few people paid much attention when, late last month,
Shabir Hussain and his friend Mohammed Shabir were jailed
for 11 years at Birmingham Crown Court. Working with rudimentary
tools in the basements of their homes, the pair had set
themselves up as armourers to the local underworld, converting
blank firing pistols into lethal weapons.
They produced more than 170 guns and sold them to gangs
from Bristol to Manchester.
One week after the jailings, the murder of Nottingham
jewellery shop owner Marian Bates, the gunning down
of Hertfordshire gangster Dave King, and a drive-by
shooting in Reading in which three men were injured
on Friday night, as well as last month's shooting of
seven-year-old Toni Ann Byfield, have brought the issue
of gun crime to the top of the political agenda.
According to the Association of Chief Police Officers,
gun crime is 'growing like a cancer' and spreading to
smaller communities.
Police intelligence suggests Shabir and Hussain were
the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds of similar gun factories
have been set up in homes across the country and detectives
admit guns are being put on the streets more quickly
than they can take them off. For the past 12 months
police in Nottingham have been running Operation Stealth,
an anti-firearms initiative. The team has made more
than 580 arrests and recovered 160 weapons, 10 fewer
than the Birmingham duo produced in a quarter of the
time. The murder rate in Nottinghamshire has almost
doubled. 'We're getting the right information,' says
Assistant Chief Constable Peter Ditchett, 'but we're
just not getting enough of it.'
Last year saw a record 35 per cent jump in gun crimes,
which means there are now, on average, 30 incidents
each day. There were almost 10,000 incidents involving
firearms recorded in England and Wales and, although
the largest increases were in metropolitan areas, the
figures showed use of handguns was also growing in rural
communities. Overall, handguns were used in almost half
of these incidents.
Handgun crime has soared past levels last seen before
the Dunblane massacre of 1996 and the ban on ownership
of handguns introduced the year after Thomas Hamilton,
an amateur shooting enthusiast, shot dead 16 schoolchildren,
their teacher and himself in the Perthshire town.
It was hoped the measure would reduce the number of
handguns available to criminals. Now handgun crime is
at its highest since 1993.
As well as being converted from air guns and blank
firing weapons, handguns are being imported from eastern
Europe and beyond. A good quality semi-automatic handgun
can be bought on the streets of London for as little
as £200.
New laws that make carrying a firearm an offence with
a mandatory five-year sentence have won little favour
with officers on the street. 'It changes nothing,' said
one drug squad detective who asked to remain anonymous.
'Most of the kids carry guns in order to protect themselves
when they are dealing. They are going around with enough
crack or heroin to ensure that they go away for 10 years
if they get caught. Because of that, they feel they
have nothing to lose and everything to gain by carrying
a gun. They carry them just for the hell of it.'
Notorious underworld figure Joey Pyle agrees. 'In the
old days, during the time of the Krays and the Richardsons,
people didn't go around with guns on them all the time.
You only got tooled up if you were out on a bit of work.
That's all changed now. For a lot of people out there,
having a gun is little more than a fashion accessory.'
Although much of the blame has fallen on trends in
music and fashion, particularly within the black community,
which have helped to glamourise weapons, the problem
is now spreading into other sectors of society.
The Metropolitan Police's flagship and hugely successful
Operation Trident is described as an initiative against
black-on-black gun related crime in the capital. In
Nottingham, Operation Stealth has been criticised for
concentrating on the problem of gun crime within the
black community but, with both suspects in the latest
shooting there being white, this focus is now being
questioned.
'It's no longer a black or white issue,' says Lyndon
Gibson of the Urban Nation Youth Project. 'These guns
are in the hands of the whole community. Guns are everywhere
and they are being used by everyone.'
Assistant Chief Constable Nick Tofiluk, of the West
Midlands Police, agrees. 'The use of firearms is not
an Afro-Caribbean issue alone. White and Asian networks
exist that possess firearms and are involved in the
supply of illicit drugs both to the Afro-Caribbean networks
and in competition with existing networks. The potential
for inter-ethnic criminal disputes is increasing.'
The suspects in the murder of Dave King in Hoddesdon
were wearing masks but some witnesses have described
them as being white. King, who worked as a security
guard to a number of high-profile musicians and also
had links to the boxing world, was well known to local
police.
Assistant Chief Constable Jeremy Alford says the Hertfordshire
Police investigation will be looking closely at King's
associates. 'I can say that he is a person who had some
criminal convictions in the past and his past could
be described as involving some considerable criminality.'
A police spokeswoman said a second man who was injured
in the shooting had been discharged from hospital and
was at a secret location. She said forensic officers
were continuing to examine the scene and a vehicle -
thought to be the van used by the gunmen - which had
been found burnt out and abandoned in the Lampits area
of Hoddesdon..
King's murder came amid heightened concern over gun
crime after a mother was shot dead in Nottingham while
trying to protect her daughter from armed robbers.
Marian Bates, 64, leapt in front of her daughter as
one of the two young criminals aimed a handgun at the
34-year-old and demanded gems from the family shop.
Her husband of 42 years, Victor, 64, suffered head
injuries in the struggle,
Mr Bates said the gunman had first attempted to shoot
him but the weapon misfired. 'My wife ran forward to
get between the gunman and my daughter and he shot her
dead. She was a brave woman, not at all foolhardy. She
was protecting her daughter, like every mother.'
Victor Bates has called on the Government to take action
to end the problem of gun crime. Home Secretary David
Blunkett has promised action. He is believed to be pinning
many of his hopes on the new head of the Home Office's
Police Standards Unit, Paul Evans, who previously worked
in the American city of Boston, significantly reducing
gun crime.
'I want him to bring that experience and share it with
us. I want the experience of the Metropolitan Police
in London, with Operation Trident dealing with gang
warfare, guns and drugs, to be spread across the country.
If we can do that, I think we can take these people
on and we can beat them,' Blunkett said.
The most recent shooting incident took place in Elm
Park, Reading, Berkshire, when three men were blasted
with a shotgun. Just before 10.30pm on Friday the men
were hit by shots fired from a dark blue or black Volvo-type
car, Thames Valley Police said.
One of the victims suffered serious facial injuries,
the other two shotgun wounds to their arms and back.
All three were taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital
in Reading, where the man with facial injuries was undergoing
surgery.
A Thames Valley Police spokeswoman said: 'None of the
injuries is believed to be life threatening.' |
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