Gun violence in Britain

The world is overflowing with guns - as many as one for every ten people. Although in Britain, we are four times more likely to be killed with a knife than a gun, the threat of violence through fire arms has taken central stage in the media. The term gun violence encompasses intentional crime characterized as homicide and assault with a deadly weapon, as well as unintentional injury and death resulting from the misuse of firearms. A series of violent shootings in Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland have punctured the myth that Europe is gun-free. Internationally Britain has a low death rate from guns, France and Finland, for instance, have a much higher percentage. The overall level of gun crime in the UK accounts for less than 0.5% of all crime recorded by the police. However, the number of overall offences involving firearms has been increasing each year since 1997/98. Also alarming is the rise in the number of young people carrying real or imitation firearms. Gun crime in the United Kingdom is perceived as an ever increasing threat. (see Crime info website)

We also know that gun crime is starting at an earlier age than ever recorded. This includes victims as well as offenders. The average age of the victims in the 10 murders of 1997 was 29 and the youngest was aged 19. Ten years later, in June and July 2007 the average age of the five victims has fallen to 25 and if the 47-year-old boxer James Oyebola is excluded, the figure drops to 20. In the last four years, the proportion of victims who were teenagers had risen from 19% to 31%. (BBC News, 13th November 2007). Gus John, a professor of education at Strathclyde University who studies gun crime, particularly in the Afro-Caribbean community, believes it is important to underline the fact that young people are drawn into gang culture not so much because of low self-esteem or lack of employment opportunities, but rather because it brings its own excitement and temporary material gain. (BBC News, 14th november 2007). Gangs and guns seem to have an unmistakable allure.

Research on gun crime carried out for the Home Office suggests that illegal drugs markets represent the single most important theme in relation to the use of illegal firearms. Less officially, racism, rap and a lack of positive role models have all been blamed for the recent series of gun deaths. The Tory leader, David Cameron has blamed such violence on the lack of family values and our broken society, saying: "This goes beyond any one policy or any one government. I think what we need is to recognise our society is badly broken and we need to make some big changes, starting now" (Guardian Unlimited, 16th February 2007). A few months later (4th July), Cameron was quoted in The Guardian calling the music industry to "show leadership" by banning violent lyrics from songs: "I am not calling for censorship, legislation or the banning of content. I am calling on you [the music industry] to show leadership, exercise your power responsibly and to use your judgement. I know music plays a small part in all this. But I also know, unless we all fulfil our responsibilities, however small, we cannot hope to confront the challenge of our broken society." The finger has also been pointed at gory video games and violent Hollywood movies. The heroes of Terminator, Mission: Impossible and the Die Hard films, just to name a few major block-busters, all succeed with their explosive weaponry. It is certainly true that gang culture has been glamorized within the entertainment industry. Role models are misogynistic aggressive rappers, pulp-fictionesque hitmen and nihilistic Marilyn Mansons. The incitement to dominate, abuse and violate is deeply imbedded in the lyrics of many hip-hop songs. Snoop Dogg in "Tha Eastsidaz - Another Day" sings: "How much dirt have I done/My life has just begun/ I sleep with my gun/ My problems weigh a ton.../Live by the gun die by the gun." "Big Pun - Brave In The Heart" from Endangered speciesincludes the lyrics:

I'm from where the guns love to introduce theyself
Reduce your health, little bulletproofs get felt
Make way for kill, I don't play I spray for real
Blow your top with the glock, that's my favourite kill
Blaze your crib with like thirty shots
I'm already hot, but my last one is with some dirty cops
Blow a hole through your ribs just for runnin your lips
The street's a trip; either you deep or you sleep with the fish

Being "trigger happy" is seen as smooth and the ultimate emblem of being cool. A poster of rapper 50 Cent holding a gun and a baby was fiercely criticized but the truth is that the public salivates over the dangerous and the provocative. We are hungry for images that shock, we feast on the obscene. We have become immune to many alarming images and so the search for the ever more atrocious feeds the media. Witness the success of such "torture porn" films as Saw and all its sequels. It is easy to blame influences from across the Atlantic. America is often cited as being a Satanic-like influence whose values are seeping into Europe. America, that prides itself on the "right to bear arms" enshrined by the Second Amendment, has an extremely high level of gun crime. The infamous attacks such as the Colombine highschool massacre (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/20/newsid_24890...) and more recently the Virginia Tech shooting cannot easily be forgotten it (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article...). It is easy to demonise the "other" and fall into the trap of thinking that as long as we are not as corrupted as "them" we are not in any real danger. America may have a disturbingly high level of such crime, but even if its gang culture and glamorisation of vice is partly responsible for the increasing phenomenon of violence in this country, we should remember that hatred, anger and its enactment is truly bred from within.

Although gun-related violence has hit the headlines recently, a BBC News journalist is keen to point out that "the most common weapon used in a violent crime in England and Wales is not a gun - but a knife. There are four times more knife-related killings as firearms-related killings." (Dominic Casciani, "Analysis: UK gun crime figures", 31st January 2008).A spate of stabbings in 2006 prompted Giles Hattersley, journalist for The Times, to seek to find out why so many people felt obliged to carry knives ("Blade culture has us all in its thrall", 4th June 2006). It seems it started with gangs turning to knives after the authorities cracked down on guns. As this "knife epidemic" spread out of city rough spots, non-gang members started carrying knives, too, as protection, or merely to look cool. "For a particular type of teen", Hattersley  writes, "knives retain the same fetish-like appeal that they always have. Recent films such as Kill Bill and Blade Trinity have done much to glamorise knife fighting. [...] Boys are no longer the whole story, however. While victims and perpetrators of knife crime are still overwhelmingly male, Irwin [head of Offroad Productionz, a mentoring group that tackles gang and violent crime] has identified a nasty new breed of female knife carrier. "I'm shocked by the number of girls carrying them," she says. "We are seeing older girls bullying younger girls for their mobiles, pulling out knives and slashing their jackets and even holding blades up to their throats. They're every bit as vicious as the boys." "

Experts are divided on the best course of action to reduce such crime. Some campaigners, such as Gill Marshall-Andrews of Gun Control Network, (http://www.gun-control-network.org) have called for even tougher legislation, such as banning airsoft weapons. Others say, this is misguided and that there should be more focus on the social problems that lead to such destruction. The government has set up the Connected programme (http://www.connected.gov.uk/) to support local community groups in their fight against gun violence. It promises to be committed to tackling gun culture head on and has pledged a range of measures including working to block imports of firearms, stepping up surveillance of gangs and using civil orders against gang members. The same old story. The same suggested approaches....