GUN CRIME FIGURES - JANUARY 2010

THE TREND IS DOWNWARDS

In January the Home Office published the latest Gun Crime figures for England and Wales.  There were two sets, the detailed figures for the year ending March 2009 and the provisional figures for the period ending September 2009 (the latter exclude offences involving air weapons).  Data recorded prior to 2002 are not directly comparable with more recent statistics because of changes to the way in which offences were recorded, and there is no doubt that since 2002 the trend in gun crime has been significantly downwards. 

The provisional figures for the year ending September 2009 indicated a fall of 5 per cent in the number of offences (excluding air weapons) compared with the year ending September 2008.

Deaths and Injuries

The number of fatalities, 39, resulting from firearms offences in 2008-09 was the lowest for at least 20 years.  Because the numbers of fatalities are small it is important not to place undue significance on year-on-year changes, though it can certainly be said they provide no support whatsoever for media comments, and misleading comments from senior Conservative politicians that gun crime has been escalating.  This is also apparent from the number of offences causing injury which has fallen by over 55 per cent since 2004/05.

Air Weapons

In spite of a significant fall in the number of air weapon offences recorded in 2008/09 they still accounted for 42 per cent of the total, more than any other category of firearm.  Air weapons make a significant contribution to gun crime.  Airguns were responsible for nearly a fifth of all serious injuries and nearly three fifths of slight injuries when a gun was fired.

Imitations

The data indicated that offences involving imitation firearms had fallen by 41 per cent since the previous year.  However, this fall has not been reflected in the incidents we become aware of from media reports.  We suspect that many offences originally recorded under “handguns” (a description which in most instances will be based solely on the appearance of the weapon to a witness) did, in fact, involve imitation weapons.  We have noticed, for example, that in the reports of armed robbery cases the majority of those convicted used an imitation firearm though this was often reported as a handgun at the time of the incident. (See handguns below)

Like Air Weapons, Imitation Guns are not benign and were responsible for a quarter of all injuries sustained when a gun was fired.  Indeed between them Air Weapons and Imitation Firearms caused 56 per cent of all gun injuries.

Handguns

As noted above an offence may often be recorded under “handguns” solely on the basis of the appearance of the weapon involved.  A weapon described as a handgun will not always be a live-firing weapon, and in many instances it will have been an imitation.  This cannot be established unless the weapon has been fired or recovered.  The Home Office figures suggest that many of the handgun offences could have involved imitations.  Of the 4275 handgun offences nearly 80 per cent (3350) were committed with a "type unknown", suggesting they were neither fired nor recovered, and according to the Injury data there were 3851 offences recorded in which a handgun was not fired.  It is important to know to what extent the recorded handgun offences overestimate the number involving live-firing weapons i.e. prohibited handguns and consequently the degree to which imitation gun offences are being underestimated. 

Legally owned weapons

The data confirm that a majority of gun offences are being committed with weapons that do not require registration.  Offences with airguns and imitation guns accounted for at least 53 percent of the total, and given the doubts about handguns and imitations the figure is probably much higher. 
See Crime Figures for England & Wales

Gun deaths in 2008

The number of apparent gun homicides was the lowest for at least twenty years.

There were 42 apparent homicides reported during 2008 (this includes one that took place on 31 December 2007), 41 in England and Wales and 1 in Scotland.  The corresponding figures for 2007 were 51 and 4, respectively.

Fifteen of these occurred in London, 6 in the West Midlands, 4 in Merseyside and 4 in Greater Manchester.  There were two homicides in both Kent and Shropshire (the latter in same incident in which the gunman also took his own life), and one each in Bradford, Cornwall, Derby, Hertfordshire, Hull, Leeds, Northumberland and Sheffield.  The one gun homicide in Scotland occurred in Glasgow.

One third of the victims were under-21, including six young men in London. Two of the young victims died in Greater Manchester, the others were killed in shootings in Birmingham, Derby, Leeds, Merseyside, Sheffield and Shropshire, where the 15-year-old victim was killed by her own father.  She and a 15-year-old boy shot in Derby were the youngest victims.

There were four female victims, three of whom were killed in two separate incidents by family members with links to gun clubs who then shot themselves.  The fourth was a teenager shot with an air rifle at a party.

Three other men were shot dead by armed police officers in two incidents in London and one in Guildford (Surrey).  In each case the dead man had been seen brandishing a gun, in one instance firing a shotgun from the window of a flat.

Airguns killed four people.  As well as the teenage girl shot at a party, a toddler died after being accidentally shot by his sister with their father's gun in the family garden.  Two men took their own lives with air rifles.

Source: Gun Control Network 2008