[About 18 years ago my brother's bouncer was shot seriously and the bullet went through his chest into my brother's arm. The shot was fired by a man who had been refused admission to my brother's private nightclub. It made front-page news all over the country. Today, the incident wouldn't rate much more than a short para, if any, in the least-read section of the newspaper.]

Thursday, 9 January, 2003, 11:49 GMT

Gun crime has risen by 35% in a year, new Home Office figures show.

There were 9,974 incidents involving firearms in the 12 months to April 2002 - a rise from 7,362 over the previous year.

RECORDED CRIME RISES

Overall crime: 2%

Gun crime: 35%

Robbery: 13%

Burglary: 5%

Source: Home Office adjusted figures

That represents an average of 27 offences involving firearms every day in England and Wales, with guns fired in nearly a quarter of cases.

Overall crime in the year to September was up 9.3%, with domestic burglary up 7.9%, drugs offences up 12.3% and sex offences up 18.2%.

Home Office officials insisted, however, that the new system of including all crimes, whether there was supporting evidence or not, was responsible for some of the increases.

When that new recording system was taken into account, overall crime rose by 2%, they said, with burglary up 5%.

Home Office Minister John Denham also pointed to new data from the British Crime Survey - which includes crimes not reported to the police - which he called the most reliable indication of trends.

The survey put all crime down 7% in the year to September.

"The British Crime Survey shows crime has been falling since 1997 and the risk of being a victim is very low - around the same as 1981," he said.

The statistics come after the government this week announced a crackdown on gun crime with a series of plans to tighten firearms law

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2003

Answers

And they are released ahead of high level talks with police, customs and community leaders on Friday about how to tackle gun crime, hosted by Home Secretary David Blunkett.

The latest gun crime figures are more than double the 4,903 firearms incidents recorded in 1997 when Labour first took power.

The biggest increases are in the large metropolitan areas.

Robbery was up 13% on the adjusted figures.

But it did fall by 10% between July and September when the government's new efforts against street crime kicked in, said officials.

Earlier this week the government unveiled plans to introduce a five-year minimum jail sentence for anyone illegally possessing a firearm.

That was followed on Wednesday by plans to ban anyone carrying a replica or air weapon in a public place without a good reason, as well as new age limits.

Opposition parties have accused ministers of mounting a snap response to the New Year shooting in Birmingham in which two teenage girls died.

Mr Letwin said: "The only word for this is failure.

"The government's response of knee-jerk reactions and initiatives is not working and confused signals on sentences for burglary will not help either."

Mr Denham denied the government had rushed into new plans against gun crime.

"The truth is that all the measures we have announced this week have been under discussion and in preparation for a matter of months at least," he said.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2003

The minister said rising gun violence was only a small part of overall crime but was "desperately worrying", especially for the worst-affected areas.

Hundreds of people gathered on Wednesday for a candlelit vigil in Aston in memory of cousins Charlene Ellis, 18, and Letisha Shakespeare, 17, who were gunned down in a hail of bullets nearly a week ago.

Also on Thursday, a coroner opened and adjourned an inquest into the death of Charlene.

The rise in recorded burglaries come after Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine suggested first-time offenders should not be jailed unless there were aggravating features, such as carrying a firearm.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2003