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Blair cracks down on gang violence
New plans to outlaw gang membership will form a centrepiece of Tony Blair's moves to crack down on gun crime.
- By Paul Waugh, Evening Standard
- Published: 00:00 February 23, 2007
London: New plans to outlaw gang membership will form a centrepiece of Tony Blair's moves to crack down on gun crime.
The radical proposal was one of a string of legislative measures to be discussed by police chiefs and community groups at a "gun summit" held at Downing Street yesterday.
The meeting, which follows the spate of shootings that left three teenagers dead in London this month, was also looking at moves to ensure under-21s in possession of illegally-held firearms automatically go to prison for five years. Surveillance of gun dealers is another key part of the package.
Crucially, Blair and Home Secretary John Reid want to tackle the gun and knife culture among teenagers and are looking at a new law to make being a member of a gang an aggravating factor in an offence.
Blair was set to lambast his Tory opponents for failing to vote for tougher laws on guns, including the Criminal Justice Act 2003 which imposed mandatory sentences.
The Prime Minister was set to stress that although new legislation is needed, gun crime is very specific to certain parts of Britain and is not widespread. As he meets community leaders from London, Manchester and Nottingham - areas where firearms-related crime is highest - Blair will say particular solutions are needed for particular areas.
Meanwhile, Reid made it clear he did not want to routinely arm the police in response to the gun threat. "Britain is not a gun society. As Home Secretary I am proud of the fact that we live in a country where our police are not routinely armed and that gun crime is enough of a rarity to cause, rightly, such huge outcry when it occurs," Reid said.
But Tory leader David Cameron also waded into the debate with his own plans to tackle feckless fathers - seen as a root cause of problems with many teenage boys - particularly from black communities.
Cameron said new laws were not necessarily the answer and called for bad fathers to be treated with the same social shame as drink-drivers. He published a report backing US schemes that give marriage advice to people on low incomes and advocating moves to keep male prisoners in touch with their families.
Cameron rounded on Gordon Brown as he declared there was "no sign" that Labour recognised the scale of the problem of the breakdown of society in some parts of the country.
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