Guns pose bigger risk than drugs, say police

The head of the Metropolitan Police's gun crime task force is calling for a minimum five-year jail sentence for the increasing numbers of young men who carry guns as a "fashion accessory".

Commander Alan Brown, head of Operation Trident which targets black-on-black gun crime, said wielding a gun had far more lethal consequences than drug-dealing but carried a much softer penalty. The current "derisory" nine-month sentence for gun possession was partly to blame for the rise in the number of muggings carried out at gunpoint.

"I'm not condoning drug- dealing, but if you look at the potential damage and harm that can do and the potential damage a young man with a firearm can do in public place, there is no comparison," Commander Brown said. "Yet the person supplying drugs is going to receive a considerably longer prison sentence."

The demand for tougher sentencing comes on the eve of new crime figures which are expected to reveal a rise in gun-related offences.

This upward trend has been fuelled by a rise in street crime despite efforts by the Home Office and senior police officers to make it their top priority.

Of increasing concern is the number of muggings in which real or imitation firearms are used. In the first eight months of last year, armed muggings rose by 53 per cent in London alone, from 435 between April and November 2000 to 667.

The rise is due in part to criminals using replica firearms such as starting pistols which they have converted into lethal weapons using power drills bought from DIY stores.

Last year, the Government pledged to push through new legislation to ban the sale of replica guns but laws have yet to be passed.

Commander Brown said gun shootings could be cut by 30 per cent if harsher penalties were introduced which would curb the use of guns by young people as "fashion accessories". "I don't want to put people in prison – it's a question of building in a deterrent," he said.

Without harsher penalties, Commander Brown warned carrying guns would become acceptable within certain sections of the community and shootings would increase.

"In some sections of society, if you don't have a firearm you don't have respect," he said. "Stiffer penalties for carrying guns would reduce offences where a dispute takes place in a club or someone's foot gets trodden on in a dancehall. And that results in someone getting shot."

The Home Office said the Government had already shown it was committed to tackling gun crime by banning handguns.