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Gangland shootings and armed muggers are fuelling a surge in gun crime in London, according to Scotland Yard.
Police say they are battling a twin rise in the number of offences involving armed gangs and gunpoint robberies.
Overall, the number of gun crime offences across the capital soared by 14 per cent in the last four months - an increase of 139 offences.
The biggest single rise involves street robberies where muggers claim to be armed.
But police point out there are only a few occasions when guns are fired - or even seen by victims.
One senior officer said: “We are seeing a big rise in the number of people claiming they have a gun when they probably don't.
“But if you are being threatened by someone claiming to have a gun you generally don't hang around to check if they have.”
There was also a significant rise in the number of shootings involving armed drug gangs.
Details of the increase came just days after two nightclub related shootings at the weekend.
One man was shot in the shoulder outside the Ministry of Sound club in Brixton after a gangland clash while police say it is miracle no-one was killed when a gunman opened fire in a crowded club in Mill Hill. Four people were shot and injured.
A report to the Metropolitan Police Authority today details a 76 per cent increase in the number of so-called Trident gun crime offences involving gangs in the black community.
Police say the number of extra offences, around 60, is relatively low and comes after a big fall in gun crime offences last year.
Operation Trident sources say the number of gangland murders has fallen from six to three so far this year. In fact, there has not been a single Trident killing north of the river this year.
Detectives believe they are achieving success in targeting serious gun crime and in the past four months seized 34 guns, an increase of 13 per cent over last year.
But they admit they are witnessing a sharp rise in shootings, often when there is no victim.
One detective said: “These are often drive-by shootings where people are firing at houses or cars though we also get victims who are injured. They are mostly gang related but it is difficult to know exactly what's behind it.
”We don't believe there are more guns on the streets because we are recovering more weapons this year. We also do not believe these shootings are attempted murders. They often just seem random.”
In one incident last week residents called police to an estate in Tulse Hill after hearing shots fired. Witnesses reported seeing a group of youths on bikes at the time but police only found empty bullet casings at the scene and a car with gunshot damage.
In some parts of London the rise in gun crime has been particularly high.
The number of gun offences in Brent, for instance, doubled in the last four months from 31 to 63. In Hackney there was a 42 per cent rise from 43 to 61 offences.
In the main gun crime boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham there were smaller increases.
Officially, Scotland Yard played down the rise in offences saying that police re-inforcements had been sent to the boroughs suffering the greatest impact.
The Met issued a statement saying: “The increase in gun crime has not resulted in a rise in gun homicides and many of the weapons, particularly in robberies are intimated rather than confirmed as present.
“We are currently undertaking a range of activity across the Met to combat this. Trident has seized a third more firearms during this period compared to last year. The areas most affected are receiving additional support and bespoke action. “
Reader views (38)
There can not be any gun crime in the UK. After all it is illegal to have a firearm and citizens obey the law, don't they?
- John (Brit Expat), Phoenix USA
I am seriously bored at reading silly comments.
For me, the ONLY solution is for the government to stop hand holding us. GET TOUGH WITH THESE STUPID GUN AND KNIFE WIELDING CHILDREN and get them LOCKED UP.
EVERY police officer should be issued with a gun and should be prepared to use it. Forget the Human rights issue, that was a joke when it was implemented, its a joke now.
As the UK seems to follow everything the USA does, then isnt it about time, our ridiculous ministers in parliament considered ALLOWING all UK residents a licence to carry a gun?
Imagine a burgular or a mugger confronting you with intent to steal, I think they might have 2nd thoughts when the victim pulls out his own gun!!
UK Politicians REALLY should wake up, live in the real world and do what they were voted in to do, and thats to ALLOW us to have our say and sort this sorry mess of a country out. Its absolutely shameless how pig ignorant our Politicians are.
Lets take responsibility for our own actions and GET ON AND LIVE without FEAR, once and for all......Please.
- David White Geezer, UK
I see the gun pundits are in force , even in UK. why not give everyone a gun and let those who want to use them fight it out while the rest of us take a vacation hopefully all you gun toting, wannabe cowboys will have destroyed yourselves and the rest of us can live in peace and harmony.
- Jon Vickers, S.C.USA
What the law and the courts need to recognise, is that anyone arming himself with a weapon has by that act demonstrated a premeditated willingness to murder. He should therefore be severely punished.
Let's say two years minimum in jail (i.e. a four year sentence) for posession of an unlicensed firearm. Minimum five years in jail for threatening someone with a firearm. Ten years for actually using it. And life (as for murder) if he causes a wound which might reasonably have been fatal absent medical treatment. Why should a felon get a lesser sentence just because of the skill of the doctors treating his victim?
The last two sentences should apply equally for using any other sort of weapon. If there's not enough space in jails, build more jails. Use non-violent criminals as the labour force to keep costs down (and they'd learn how to earn a living in the process).
We can risk giving thieves a light sentence for a first or second offense, and maybe those who lash out with their fists (especially if provoked), but never those who demonstrate a premeditated willingness to murder.
- Nigel, London
Jackie, England- I have no idea if you are a racist, but if you take a story about crime and twist it, without any reference to facts, to make a race issue, then yes, I guess you are. As they say, if the cap fits.
- Nj, London
Squiz, evidently the truth does hurt. Lose the chip on your shoulder! are you really saying that its better to have an abusive father than an absent father? That's very worrying logic! Jackie, I have no idea if you are a racist. What I do know is that racists are quick to point the finger but never look at their own failings. The black community are well aware of the damaging issues that confront us but as the overwhelming majority are honest, law abiding citizens who work hard and pay their taxes, we are tired of being lumped in with criminal scum. I am no more responsible for a wannabe gangster than you are for Baby P's murdering, Nazi stepfather. Therefore until I see respondents bleating on about crime in the white community in the same manner as they do the black community I will gladly put you all straight.
- Veritas Noire, Purley
Years ago when I was inthe army in Aden we had Major 'Mad' Mitchell who together with his Gordan & Sutherland Highlanders sorted out the troubles. He did this by setting up a 'ring of steel' whereby his troops house by house arrested suspected terrorists and also recovered large caches of arms.
We all know that Labour has been fiddling the crime figures with the CPSA downgrading crimes to deliberately allow shorter prison sentences in compliance with the government (if you can call them that!).
- James Town, Braintree UK
Squiz
I think you have hit the nail on the head.
- David, London
Enforce the law, and shoot he gunmen as in the USA. Introduce 3 strikes and you're out. It's not rocket science, it's the political will to enforce the law.
- Davidke, ramsey isle of man
if they had police patrolling the streets like when i was growing up in the 90s there would be less of this.....this country is finished get out while you can
- Rsaviour, london england
Not supposed to happen according to the "ban the deadly weapons" crowd. I can only conclude then that his story is a fabrication, or the 'expert's' and politicians lied to us.
Guns and knives don't kill people - people kill people.
- Trunk, US
The rap and hip hop artists who glorify guns,murder and gangsterism certainly don't help matters either,about time this issue was tackled head on as i strongly believe alot of these youngsters are highly influenced by what they see and hear.
- Stephen Grimes, London
JAMES LONDON - Id Vote you in for Mayor Mate, well said
- Enoch, Croydon
Kev, gun crime is relatively rare. Look at the stats in the article and then think about the 8m people in London. Unfortunately the racists out there continually try to use crime to attack the black community whilst conveniently ignoring the crimes their own community commits. Maybe the truth hurts but paedophiles in this country are disproportionately white. To paraphrase jilly, the racists need to take responsibility and stop whinging about immigration.
- Veritas Noire, Purley
Nj and Veritas Get your heads out of the bucket of sand they are obviously in, i suppose that makes me a racist does it.
- Jackie, England
oh Veritas Noire going on about white people being paedophiles again. Well the majority of paedophilia is carried out within the family unit and since most black kids grow up fatherless because black men are so feckless that is the reason there appears to be less paedophilia in the black 'community'. Is that a sufficiently sweeping generalisation for you veritas ?
- Squiz, Islington
What we have to do is exile these sorts of casually violent fellows off to somewhere like the Isle of Arran and let them shoot it out there with bows and arrows. It's only the civilized thing to do in the end for any civilized modern society: and it could even be syndicated on Sky television if the Government set up security cameras to monitor the inmates...
- Drew Byrne, London, England.
Ah yes now what was the 1997 mantra when Police State Britain finally disarmed the last 50,000 legal handgun owners of often highly specialized target pistols? Oh yes .. no more gun crime! All of us who suffered the loss of our guns knew full well that only the crimminals and the Police would have guns and gun crime would continue upwards. The circumstances of Thomas Hamilton's licence fiasco have neatly been brushed under the carpet. He was licenced to possess a 9mm on the basis of a specified Police range .. which was only .22 certified!! The links to a paedophile ring and furthermore certain high ranking Police Officers was also brushed under the carpet? Why?
The cause of the gun crime rise can be identified with three words...Drugs, Gangs & Poverty. Tackle those issues and gun crime will fall.
- James Macleod Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove
Veritas Noire,purley. I don't know where you get your statistics from!pedophile crimes are actually very rear,as opposed to Armed robbery and muggins.Also pedophile crimes are not disproportionately committed by certain ethnic groups,as opposed to mugging and armed robberies,as you rightly acknowledged in your posting,and in any case we are commenting on armed robbery and gun crime in response to the article above.
- Kev, London-UK
A simple answer to the gun wielding thugs: ship them out to Afghanistan (with their own guns) and see how they fare.
They wouldn't last five minutes, they'd all brick it on the aircraft going there.
- Anil Chatterjee, Manchester
I moved from UK to USA 15 years ago. even though there are more guns to supply many large armies, the place is very safe, contrary to media. I myself have a license to carry a glock handgun. it's about time the UK trusted it's citizens again and not be a bunch of cowards thinking the law abiding will revolt.
- Paul Fisher, atlanta, georgia
When are the blacks going to take responsibility and start to clear up the crime and causes of crime within their own communities instead of just whinging every time they stopped and searched? If there was a movement from within, surely the crime rate would reflect that. Or should we carry on pretending that gun and knife crime are spread equally across all classes and communities?
- Jilly, London
"Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" Yeah right.
- Dee Jay, Fleet Hampshire
I go along word for word with Kev, London-UK.
As for James, London; the death penalty for all murders with any kind of weapon, not just guns?
More die by the knife, than die by the gun.
If you carry any kind of weapon, you fully intend to use it; if you do not fully intend to use it; then why carry it in the first place etc?
And by using any weapon in your possession to kill; the fact that you had it, and you killed or wounded another person; makes it clearly premeditated murder.
But nothing will change for the better in the UK; whilst we continue to import even more killers and criminals.
- Mickinlondon, london
Pat fm Croydon- I am actually a genius and I cannot work out which section of the community these “gun weilding (sic) muggers and gangsters” come from as the article doesn't say, oh and incidentally it isn't really relevant. So are you privy to some information the rest of us aren't or are you the usual racist bore jumping to lazy conclusions to prove a point that doesn't even exist? I suspect the later.
- Nj, London
One simple solution. Target the gun manufacturers. make a gun go to jail. Who makes these things anyway?
- Jon Vickers, S.C.USA
Pat, operation trident specifically targets black gun crime so the issue is acknowledged. I trust you get equally worked up about the disproportionate amount of the white community who are paedophiles, a far more heinous and unfortunately common crime than gun crime.
- Veritas Noire, Purley
These thugs running around with guns thinking they are Mr Big are really getting out of control. If they like guns so much, when they are caught give them six months basic training and ship them out to Afghanistan
to fight in a real war.
- Patricia, LONDON
Kev, I couldn't have put it better myself. Kill a few of them and it'll soon stop. I am so sick to death of the pc brigade and the so called civil liberties of this country. Unfortunately these same human rights never seem to apply to people who work for a living and who keep this country ticking over (well, just about with this gross government), those of us who have never broken the law and who never take out the pot, just contribute to it. Bring back corporal and capital punishment, get the hell out the EU so we can close our borders to those who don't want to intigrate or work, tidy up the mess this country has got itself into and shoot anyone waving a gun around.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
Two TV programmes, The Bill and Fixer, routinely deal with storylines of the violent crimes and large organised gangs, often drug related, on big barrack like estates in London. You get the sense of a losing battle against a relentlessly growing force. The expert advisers to these programmes are clearly that. For they more and more all too apparently portray real life developments and less and less fiction. Fiction mirroring what's happening right now.
One of the saddest aspects which the programmes capture, and are reported in the news, is the escalating recruitment of children into crime gangs, especially those in bike packs.
If New York could be cleaned up of crime gangs a few years back, WHEN will the Met, The Mayor and local Govt. do the same for London?
- James, London
"No doubt the MET will respond in it's normal PC speak and refuse to publicly acknowlege that there is a disproportionate problem with gun/knife/drug related crime within the black community."
Isn't Operation Trident exactly that, a public acknowledgement that there is a blah, blah, blah. Try applying at least a modicum of internal logic - it's always explained in the media as 'investigating gun crime within the black community'.
"just 10 yrs ago you hardly heard of a gun being used"
Cobblers. Ten years ago was 1999, which was the year Harry Stanley was shot for holding a table leg the police thought was a gun. There were 49 fatal shootings in the UK that year, in 2005/6 there were 50. What is definitely true is a hefty spike in the early years of this century (reflected in the London murder rate, which has halved since then), with an equally hefty reduction since about 2003, so people are actually about 5 years behind the curve with this sort of 'OMG guns' scare story. The nasty little catch to this is that either criminals decided to stop murdering people or New Labour, Livingstone and Ian Blair oversaw a sharp reduction in violent crime.
Finally, if there is more gun crime but fewer murders, the thugs are obviously becoming steadily worse shots over time
- Tom, London, UK
They should defintely bring back the death penalty for murder,then we wont have to keep them comfortable for a short time and let them loose again.
- Richard Edmunds, Rayleigh Essex
This type of crime is on the increase,just 10 yrs ago you hardly heard of a gun being used,20 yrs ago you never heard of it.The authorities constantly play this down,at the same time it is a offence to defend yourself(this reasonable force nonsense is just that"nonsense")My first human right is the right to protect myself and my friends and family,clearly i cant do that,and that is a crime being committed against me by the authorities,so as a law abiding citizen I'm damned if i do and damned if i don't.I demand the right to bear arms,i demand the right to defend my self in a country that cant control what comes across its borders and ends up on the streets,IE the goods and the people that use them.I am living in a society that has been imposed on me,and i have been made impotent by the people who have imposed it on me.I like many others are angry at this injustice.
- Kev, London-UK
James, Like your ideas. I have another.
4) Cut anybodys hand off (like they do in Saudi Arabia) who uses a weapon to cause harm or harassment. ie the toff the other week who went round to his neighbours with a samurai sword.
5) Bring back the stocks for minor offences. Only mouldy veg could be thrown.
- Chris, Rochester
Not far from where I live residents called the police when hearing gun shots.
The following week our local paper quoted the local police inspector as stating we had nothing to worry about, as the 2 gangs were firing their guns in the air not at each other.
Well thats all right then
- Steve M, LONDON
You don't have to be a genius to figure out from which section of the community these gun weilding muggers and gangsters come from, do we!!. Sufficient to say there will be further increases in the overtime budget for those officers involved with operation Trident. No doubt the MET will respond in it's normal PC speak and refuse to publicly acknowlege that there is a disproportionate problem with gun/knife/drug related crime within the black community. The most effective way to combat such street crime is by an increase in the use of targeted stop and search powers in specific areas of London. But as usual ordinary police officers will be left in the middle to be criticised by waste of space publicity seeking politicians from the GLA, closely followed by unemployed, and unelected 'youth and community leaders' when they do try and do something about it. Who would want to join the police service.
- Pat, Croydon Uk
So the police are not working hard enough to remove guns from the streets ! Simple solution is :-
1) Shoot-to-kill anybody that has a gun in their hand, replica or not, which must be confirmed by at least two identifiable officers and the ‘gun’ cannot possibly be mistaken for a piece of wood
2) Stop the politically correct madness of quota stop and search, target likely offenders within a statistical offence cluster group
3) Bring back the death penalty for any murder that involves a gun and there is at least a distance of 3 metres between them, avoiding the possibility of accident during a fight to disarm
- James, London, England
"We are seeing a big rise in the number of people claiming they have a gun when they probably don't."
Are they seriously saying that the figures are incorrect because they can't prove that a gun was actually present? That's the worst kind of spin, it's half arsed at best, at worst it's a full on lie.
- Bob, Cheam
