Three-point plan to tackle gun crime

The Home Secretary announced the 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. 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, lincluding in relation to juveniles
• gun supply issues
• gang membership
• any new powers that might be needed

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 and gang culture and offering support to parents to challenge their children's behaviour

In Nottingham, the Nottingham Stands Together strategy has been working hard to reduce serious violent crime. Nottingham has looked at the underlying causes of gun and knife crime through the community with the people most affected by it. Research into territorialism has shown the historical links of gangs in Radford, St Ann's and the Meadows - the NG Triangle - and how an argument can be perpetuated and evolve into serious problems over a long period of years.

A big success in Nottingham's drive to reduce gun crime and bring different factions of the community together has been the development of Unity Football, a team of over-18 year old men from the NG Triangle who have played matches against the police and celebrities. This project has attracted funding from the Football Association and is being expanded to incorporate teams covering all ages.

With funding from a range of stakeholders, including £135,000 over the past two years from the Recycled Assets Fund, a range of activities have taken place. From a website to a DVD, from basketball to mentoring schemes, involvement with young people has been paramount.  

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."

This comprehensive approach draws together the broad range of work currently underway including tough 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.

People should not think they can get away with passing off their gun to someone else. 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 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.