Gun crime in Lancashire shoots up (From Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen)

Gun crime in Lancashire shoots up

10:28am Wednesday 28th October 2009

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GUN crime in Lancashire has increased by 600per cent in 10 years, according to figures obtained by the Conservative Party.

The increase is the biggest rise in the country.

But police chiefs have said while the figures are ‘at first glance... alarming’, many referred to incidents involving replicas, or ball bearing weapons.

According to the figures, there were 50 incidents in the county in the financial year 1998-9, comp-ared to 349 in 2007-8, a rise of 598per cent.

Staffordshire, Warwickshire and West Yorkshire also saw large rises, but Lancashire was by far and away the biggest increase.

However, Lancashire’s total of 349 incidents is far fewer than many areas.

London saw more than 3,000 gun crimes, Greater Manchester 1,160, and West Midlands 974.

Lancashire Assistant Chief Constable Chris Weigh said: “These figures, at first glance, could seem alarming, but we would want people to understand that they are referring to incidents, not actual firearms being discharged.

“Such incidents can include when the armed response vehicle is deployed to an incident that involves a replica, or ball bearing gun, and many of these involve young people playing around.

“What is important is that gun crime in Lancashire is actually very rare and, despite this reported rise, we are confident that we have the right measures and responses in place to combat any real firearm threat.”

The stats, released to the Conservatives in Parliamentary answers, show a full breakdown of gun crime by police force and region.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: “In areas dominated by gang culture, we’re now seeing guns used to settle scores between rivals, as well as turf wars between rival drug dealers.

“We need to redouble our efforts to deal with the challenge.”

The Home Office said the figures were ‘misleading’ because of changes in recording practices.

A Home Office spokesman said: “It is misleading to compare figures for 2007/08 with those from 2002 and before, due to changes in recording practices.

"There has been an 11per cent fall in gun crime since 2005 and provisional figures for firearm offences recorded by the police show they account for 0.2per cent of all recorded crime.”

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