BRITAIN: Gun crime in England and Wales - one of the UK's most pressing social issues - shot up by 35 per cent last year, according to official figures published yesterday.
The sharp increase will reinforce calls for tighter gun laws following the New Year's Eve murder of two black teenage girls, killed in the crossfire of a suspected gangland battle.
As the figures were released, an armed man who has been holed up in a London flat for 15 days, fired shots at police besieging his apartment.
Guns were used in 9,974 reported crimes in the year to April 2002, up from 7,362 the year before, the Home Office said. The number of people shot dead jumped 32 per cent to a total of 23.
After the two girls were killed by sub-machinegun fire outside a New Year party , Home Secretary Mr David Blunkett outlined plans for a minimum five year jail term for illegal gun possession. His department was forced to concede that sentences remained at the discretion of judges. Home Office minister Mr John Denham said yesterday the minimum sentence would be enforced.
"We announced earlier this week that we would be introducing a five-year minimum sentence for possession of a firearm," he said in a statement.
He conceded gun crime was a problem. "Although crime overall remains stable, I am concerned at the significant rise that we have seen in firearm offences," he said.
One definite government plan is to ban airguns and replica firearms, which are often illegally converted to fire live ammunition. Carrying the weapons in public without a licence would become illegal, officials said.
The British Crime Survey figures released yesterday showed a seven per cent drop in all crime over the year and a two per cent drop in violent crime.
But fewer than half of adults said the criminal justice system was effective in bringing people to justice and only 39 per cent said it was dealing with cases promptly and efficiently.
Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair has made cutting crime one of his central political pledges. Pistols and even machine guns are now freely available on the black market, often coming from the war-ravaged Balkans. But Britain still remains far behind the US in terms of gun murders.
Opposition MPs condemned the figures as "truly terrible". The figures showed the number of crimes involving handguns had more than doubled since the post-Dunblane massacre ban on the weapons, from 2,636 in 1997-1998 to 5,871.