ACPO: UK Not Awash With Guns

The most senior policeman spearheading efforts to reduce gun crime has insisted that the country is not "awash" with firearms and that the problem was not out of control.

Chief Constable Keith Bristow, the head of Warwickshire Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers' (ACPO) spokesman on the criminal use of firearms, stressed that gun crime had declined in recent years.

Speaking ahead of a major ACPO conference to discuss how to tackle gun crime, Mr Bristow said a "concerted effort" was needed from police, communities and other agencies to tackle gun-related violence.

Here again is another yet pointless conference in a series of "how to tackle things"

Usually they throw money at these sorts of things because when the government and public want to know what has been done by the police they can show the budget spent on it and claim they did all they can.

We suddenly end up with teams of fantasy squads who are about for the life span of a May Fly, usually joined by the station cats and Olympic torches so they can get all of the latest bits of Gucci kit which will no doubt be gathering dust in their lockers as soon as the squad is finished. We all get Monday morning emails detailing to us the wonderful way we are going to tackle the latest problem that has cropped up. For "We" read you or me, not the ones who sent it.

Simply put, the way to deal with these latest problems is cut the red tape! Allow us to get back on the streets and be a presence in the neighbourhoods so these gun, knife wielding nutters can see us. I am fed up of arresting someone then to be stuck in the nick doing paper work for it for the next six hours and fed up putting case files together and gathering statements for a job that has already been closed by either No Further Action or a caution! We have plenty of weak and weary officers who are close to being pensioned off for having a finger nail out of place, why not use these as case builders and allow us to write our notes and just go back out there?

I agree to a certain extent with Mr Bristow that this country is not awash with guns but it is most certainly is heading that way. The story of murdered schoolboy Rhys Jones is still fresh in everyone's minds and thus can fool the spirit into thinking that this country is a gun riddled toilet. In my 5 years of being in this job I've only ever had one gun incident. (Thank God!)

Allegedly the FBI warned the UK government some years ago that inner city gangs would be the new thing, what with the rise of Yardie and wannabe Yardie gangs in the USA. Drugs and guns would soon follow. Allegedly the government did little or nothing to act on stopping it.

The rumour that you can walk into any pub in most towns and buy a gun must be wrong. (surely!) Either I look like a copper off duty as well as on because I have never been approached by anyone who's asked me if I've wanted to buy a gun (or drugs for that matter). In fact, most pubs I've been into in the past 15 years I've legally been allowed to drink, you can barely buy cigarettes let alone a hand gun! Anyway, how on earth do you start a conversation about buying a gun in a pub?

"Barman, a pint of John Smith's and a Walther P38 please"

or in some pubs "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?"

In my humble opinion, gun crime is being highlighted by the press more and more. This sparks a general consensus that this particular crime is spiralling out of control. Because we hear of it more.

Yes, it's great that the public are hearing of the horrors which hopefully will dissuade others from committing the same crime but I'm not so sure it is a good thing to keep on and on about them because what I do know for certain is that if you keep highlighting the same subject over and over, people will eventually take no notice, they get bored of it and that can be dangerous, because then it's becoming the norm.

Eventually it no longer becomes front page news which is where it should belong. It ends up migrating through the newspaper and shrinks in size until it makes a small footnote at the bottom of a page. Stories like the one about Rhys Jones should always belong on the front page national news because here is a young boy gunned down at 11 years old on his way home from football practice.

However, hearing about a gang fight between youths and a gun being seen or heard, (especially if it's at the Notting Hill Carnival as it's always happening there) should never make the national news as it waters down the major tragedies and that most certainly is a crime.