Armed police tackle gun murders

[mercuryrapids]

Armed police tackle gun murders (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6363713.stm)

I know there are bad people out there with guns and that there are some right nutters who go around killing people, but reading this (and watching the BBC news reports) makes me think of some sort of 'problem/reaction/solution' operation going on. :(

[melbo]

Yes, makes me suspicious too. Armed officers will be patrolling the streets as part of a new task force set up to tackle a spate of fatal shootings in south London.

[soundist]

It wouldnt suprise me in the least if the ones that did it were victims of mkultra, or of electronic mind manipulation. Maybe both.

[ennui]

British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced plans Sunday to overhaul gun laws after three teenage boys were shot dead in south London this month, prompting a national debate about guns and gangs among youths.


The age at which the mandatory five-year sentence for carrying a gun can be imposed should be reduced to 17 from 21, Blair said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. television. Blair ordered the gun law review to help police deal with Britain's inner-city gang culture.

Blair said he was also considering other proposals put forward by the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police including giving police new powers to monitor the homes of people suspected of possessing and using firearms.

He acknowledged there was a problem, but said gun crime - and violent crime in general - decreased in London in the past year.

"We have got to analyze what is going wrong here. Is it a general state of British society, British young people? And I think it isn't," Blair said.

"It is about a specific problem within a specific criminal culture to do with guns and gangs," he said.

Gun crime in London fell 14 percent last year, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair told reporters after an emergency meeting with commanders Thursday, but added that he was worried by an emerging trend which has seen boys with guns involved in killings and other serious violent crime.

Possession of handguns was largely outlawed in 1998, in reaction to the massacre two years earlier of 16 kindergarten pupils and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland, by a man armed with four legally owned handguns.

In England and Wales, the total of 46 homicides involving firearms in 2005-2006 was the lowest since the late 1980s.

http://www.9news.com/news/world/article.aspx?storyid=65034

[mari]

QUOTE: "We have got to analyze what is going wrong here. Is it a general state of British society, British young people? And I think it isn't," Blair said.

"It is about a specific problem within a specific criminal culture to do with guns and gangs," he said. QUOTE

How about the real cause being lack of parental caring about what their kids get up to at an early age? (where this all starts)
How about saying that the Govt has taken away the powers of parents & police to discipline thie kids?
But of course he won't say that. Doesn't fit the 'Prob-reac-solut' agenda, does it?
The problem here is a very fundamental one; a large portion of british are still not good at bringing their children up - never have been.As a society we still marginalise kids. Their is a huge sign on a pub/restaurant near me which says 'Families Welcome!' Why does their have to be a banner announcing this? Very telling, I think.
On the continent, kids go everywhere with their parents, they are very much a part of the family unit,included in most social activities, as are the grandparents.
You don't see latch-key kids in other countries to the extent that they are here.