Published: 23 February 2007
Three-point Plan to Tackle Gun Crime
The Home Secretary has announced a three-point plan following a gun crime summit at 10 Downing Street, chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by senior police officers, representatives from community groups and voluntary organisations.
The government claims that it will:
· ensure ‘tough’ punishments for those who use other people to look after weapons
· improve technology for linking weapons to incidents and
· increase funding for community groups
Alongside the measures outlined above, the Home Secretary announced a review of the legislation on gangs, guns and knives, focussing in particular on gangs.
The review will cover:
· sentencing policy generally, including in relation to juveniles
· gun supply issues
· gang membership
· what new powers might be needed and
· other relevant issues
The Home Secretary also welcomed the creation of a London Youth Crime Prevention Board by the London Community Safety Partnership to bring the Met Police, local authorities, the Youth Justice Board and community groups in London together to tackle gun, gang and other youth crime issues in the capital.
The Government will now focus on three main areas for action:
· Policing - ensuring the police are equipped to tackle gun crime
· Powers - giving the police and courts the powers to deal with offenders
· Prevention - empowering communities to take action themselves to prevent gun crime & gang culture and offering support to parents to challenge their children's behaviour
This comprehensive approach draws together the broad range of work currently underway including new gun laws, intelligence-driven policing initiatives and community-led projects and will be taken forward by the Home Office Round Table on Guns, Gangs and Knives which is chaired by the Home Secretary.
In April the government will introduce a new offence of 'using someone to mind a weapon', meaning that people who pass weapons to girlfriends, younger siblings or other gang members will still face prosecution.
Unlawful possession of a prohibited firearm means five years in jail, and this will now also apply to people who use others to look after their weapons for them. This measure was passed in the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 and will become an offence this spring.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is already:
· leading work on issues around the international market in firearms and supply
· building up a national intelligence picture of the scale & nature of the problem around guns & gangs and
· working with individual forces to tackle problems proactively and robustly
In Boston, USA police found that being able to trace where a weapon had come from helped them to reduce gun homicides from 152 to 32 in 10 years.
The National Firearm Database is currently being rolled out across England and Wales, giving forces access to a single database of all lawfully held weapons and their owners within England and Wales.
From next year, police will be able to access details of all legally-bought firearms and use new technology to identify if weapons have been used before, making it easier to trace the source of the weapon.
From April 2008, details of all weapons & ammunition recovered from a crime scene will be recorded on the National Ballistics Intelligence Database (NABID) and be accessible to all 43 police forces in England & Wales and the Joint Firearms Intelligence Cell will hopefully enable the early identification of emerging trends which will help police target pro-active initiatives and operations by all law enforcement agencies.
The Connected Fund - government funding for community groups - has so far made over £1.25 million available to 300 small voluntary groups working on gun crime and related issues across the country. Next week the government will open another round of bidding with a further £500,000 available.
The Home Secretary has also met European Union Commissioner Frattini to discuss what more can be done at an international level to tackle gun & gang crime problems, including trafficking of imitation and other firearms.
The Department for Education and Skills has agreed to work with Directors of Children's Services on measures to prevent children from becoming involved in crime and gangs and take work forward to divert young people from gang culture.
Home Secretary John Reid said:
"Gun crime is thankfully very rare in this country but we are not complacent about the challenges we face in forcing home the message that carrying an illegal firearm is simply unacceptable.
There is not a single, simple solution to keeping guns off our streets and our children out of harm's way.
Contributions to this summit have made it clear that effective policing and tough penalties must go hand in hand with education, community action and the personal responsibility of young people themselves.
I look forward to working with the police, communities and all the organisations here today, sharing a common objective: to stamp out the menace of guns from the streets of Britain."
The Home Secretary also confirmed that he would lay a Parliamentary Order to ensure:
· 18-20 year olds are subject to mandatory minimum five year sentences in the same way as over-21s and
· implement a ban on the sale, manufacture and importation of realistic imitation firearms later this year
The government says that the three-point framework will be a reference point for action over the coming months and will guide future discussions between stakeholders and help evaluate progress.
The next round table event on gun crime, which will include many of the participants at today's summit, will take place at the Home Office on 6 March 2007.
Further information
Home Office - Community safety
Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs)
Youth Justice Board
MPA: Issues - Gun crime
Met Police – Operations Tiger and Trafalgar
Met Police crime figures
The Connected Programme
The Connected Fund
Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)
Related article: Safer London Foundation
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