http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1450338/Firearms-offences-more-than-double-since-Dunblane.html
Firearms offences more than double since Dunblane
Gun crime has more than doubled since 1996, the year of the Dunblane massacre, according to the latest Home Office statistics.
Last year it reached its highest ever level with more than 10,000 recorded offences involving firearms.
In the year to April, there were 10,250 gun crimes - a rise
of three per cent on 2001-02. Guns killed 80 people and injured around
1,700. In around two thirds of the incidents they were used to threaten
victims.
Although gun crime is usually confined to members of gangs, bystanders and victims of robberies are also involved.
A year ago two teenagers died in a hail of bullets while
celebrating New Year at a party in a hairdresser's salon in Birmingham.
Five men have been charged with the murder of Charlene Ellis, 18, and
Letisha Shakespeare, 17.
In September, a Nottingham jeweller, Victor Bates, 64, watched as his wife Marian, 64, was shot in their family-run shop.
In November, Graham Fisher, 60, and his wife Carol, 53, were shot dead in their isolated bungalow at Winnard's Perch, near Wadebridge, Cornwall. The couple ran a garage.
Earlier this month, a 15-year-old girl and a woman of 25 were shot in Leeds within hours of each other. Police said the girl was walking along a road when three youths approached her. A red car pulled up at the same time and she was shot in the leg from the car with a handgun. Soon afterwards, a woman of 25 was attacked, pushed into a car and then shot in the leg.
Shortly after the New Year Birmingham shootings, the Government announced a range of measures. They included a ban on the carrying of replica guns and air weapons in public. There will also be a five-year prison sentence for carrying a firearm, although judges may not always impose it.
In November, Graham Fisher, 60, and his wife Carol, 53, were shot dead in their isolated bungalow at Winnard's Perch, near Wadebridge, Cornwall. The couple ran a garage.
Earlier this month, a 15-year-old girl and a woman of 25 were shot in Leeds within hours of each other. Police said the girl was walking along a road when three youths approached her. A red car pulled up at the same time and she was shot in the leg from the car with a handgun. Soon afterwards, a woman of 25 was attacked, pushed into a car and then shot in the leg.
Shortly after the New Year Birmingham shootings, the Government announced a range of measures. They included a ban on the carrying of replica guns and air weapons in public. There will also be a five-year prison sentence for carrying a firearm, although judges may not always impose it.
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