Gun menace in the heart of Enfield (Enfield Liberal Democrats)

Enfield Liberal Democrats <info@enfieldlibdems.org.uk>

Gun menace in the heart of Enfield

November 1, 2004 12:00 AM

Firearms / gun [Copyright: Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland] Residents in Palmers Green were recently subjected to modern Britain's vicious gun crime menace with 2 separate incidents within weeks of each other. A gang-fight outside a pub hospitalised three men with one having been shot in the face. Two weeks later, and only 500 metres away, a security guard was shot by an armed robber.

All of this sadly provided the local community with real evidence that confirms new Home Office figures showing that there has been a 3% climb in gun crime, following a 2% rise the previous year.

Astonishingly there were almost 25,000 firearms offences in 2003-2004 compared with less than 15,000 in 1998-1999. The figures show most clearly that the Government has joined the previous Tory Government in an abject failure to tackle these frightening and dangerous crimes.

Enfield Southgate's Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Ziz Kakoulakis said "What is needed is more and better policing with an emphasis on quality rather than just quantity where administrators administrate and police officers focus on crime prevention and investigation."

The statistics also show a 35% rise in crimes involving imitation weapons. Ziz Kakoulakis added "Replica guns that are often easily converted into fully functional weapons must be banned. It is ridiculous that they can be bought on the Internet for less than £40 and made lethal using simple DIY tools."

On average police officers spend twice as much time on paperwork as they do on the street. The amount of money it is projected that the Government will spend on the national ID scheme could fund 10,000 extra police officers across the country, which would mean about 45 extra officers in Enfield.