Now is time to put gun culture in firing line

SUDDENLY, following the senseless deaths of two teenagers in Birmingham, it seems everyone is now worrying about the number of crimes involving guns.

Actually, over the past year, in the course of conversations with serving police officers, I’ve heard a number of them predict a rise in crimes committed by people carrying guns in much the same way as knives are carried by hoodlums.

It’s not a new phenomenon for certain groups to tool up before going about their, usually anti-social or unlawful, business.

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A couple of generations ago, the then equivalents of the gangs who carry adapted replica guns in today’s English cities were the razor gangs in Glasgow.

The difference between the weapons of choice of the wee Glesca ned and the boyz from Birmingham is that guns are more indiscriminate killers. The motivation for carrying both types of weapon is the same.

So David Blunkett’s idea of a minimum sentence for carrying an unlicensed or illegal weapon such as the handguns popularised and made fashionable by Samuel L Jackson and Keanu Reeves films has a precedent of sorts.

A very hard-nosed sentencing policy against the razor gangs was pursued by Lord Cameron which, 40 years ago, seemed to act as a deterrent. Slashing with an open razor became a less popular way of pursuing rival gangs.

Can David Blunkett’s draconian, zero-tolerance approach to guns prove effective with this generation of bad boys ?

If the objective is to end the practice entirely, probably not. Youth gangs might decide it’s not worth the risk of five years in jail, but the other group which now uses guns as a matter of course in its activities, won’t stop doing so.

Criminals are using guns more commonly than was the case even five years ago. Tackling this aspect of the gun culture is likely to be more difficult. The organised crime which is part and parcel of the drugs industry is now cosmopolitan in that the same extortion and terror tactics are deployed in UK housing estates as make parts of American cities unliveable for law-abiding people.

Understandably, police officers are calling for a review of the regulations covering the carrying of arms by police confronted with situations in which guns may be carried by suspects.

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Nobody wants police to be armed as a matter of course but, certainly in England, there are enough "drive-by" shootings to merit an examination of when it’s a reasonable precaution for officers to be armed.

The situation in Scotland still isn’t as serious as south of the Border, either among youth gangs or the seriously criminal community. Our most popular weapon of choice is still the knife. However, it would do no harm for police forces to instigate amnesties for guns.

The Spotlight campaign flushed out a huge number of offensive weapons a few years ago and Lothian and Borders’ two-month amnesty on imitation firearms last summer was also hailed a success.

Tackling the popular "rap" culture won’t be as straightforward. It’s driven from across the Atlantic by film-makers and music producers. It’s rooted in the alienation of young, poor kids from mainstream, consumerist society. It thrives in marginalised communities with too many broken families and not enough hope of self-improvement .

Once again, we’re fortunate in Scotland that we don’t have the same conditions as exist in Birmingham’s Handsworth, for example. But we have our own desperate areas where the same poverty and inequality sours the behaviour of young people .

Police, social workers, firefighters, bus drivers and teachers all testify to rising levels of anti-social, inhumane attitudes and behaviour among young people who are ignorant of the normal courtesies .

The number of illegal handguns in circulation is calculated to be higher now than when they were banned after the Dunblane atrocity. But it’s far too simplistic to blame Blair’s Government.

"Yardie" fashions are no more under any government’s control than the weather. Organised crime has intensified, not only in the UK, but across the globe, especially Europe.

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But governments have a responsibility to help decent citizens improve behaviour in their neighbourhoods, whether by pumping resources into marginalised areas, or banging up young, impressionable gun carriers for five years minimum.

Why we should have a say on war

COULD world opinion possibly be having an effect on the Bush/Blair Iraq war strategy?

It could be that this week’s announcement of another 60,000 troops being deployed to the Middle East is a very wasteful face-saving exercise for the American President.

Maybe there really is a sub-plot that’s dependent on the other Arab states persuading Saddam that he has to go to avoid the devastation that would be caused by all that firepower. Then again, maybe not. But the pressure should be kept up, nevertheless, to persuade Bush that his gesture war-mongering has practically no support outwith the United States, and a surprisingly high level of American opposition.

To that end, it’s right that, as one of the world’s democratic forums and as the most obvious channel for the expression of opinion in Scotland, the Scottish Parliament should debate the issue of war being threatened, never mind waged, in our name.