Youth gun crime on the rise in Britain

Robert Barr

LONDON — Nine years after Britain outlawed handguns, the killing of three teenagers in London has given rise to mounting concern about gun crime involving gangs of youths.

Billy Cox, 15, was shot dead in a public housing estate last Wednesday. On Feb. 6, 15-year-old Michael Dosunmu was shot to death in his bedroom, three days after James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, was killed by a gunman at an ice rink in the city.

“It’s becoming more dangerous — they’re too many gangs,” said Jacklyn Angioni, 14, who lived in the same housing complex as Billy Cox.

Possession of handguns was largely outlawed in 1998, in reaction to the massacre two years earlier of 16 kindergarten pupils and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland, by a man armed with four legally owned handguns.

Gun crime is rare but increasing. Firearm offenses — including shootings and threats — fell below 6,000 in England and Wales in 1998-1999, but exceeded 10,000 in the two most recent years, according to the Home Office.

Gun crime in London fell 14 percent last year, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair told reporters after an emergency meeting with commanders, but that was “no comfort to the families involved.”

He promised to step up high-visibility patrols in the area. Police have also called for lowering the minimum age for the mandatory five-year sentence for illegal gun possession from 21 to 17.

Joanna Harrison, 37, said her daughter knew Cox, who had been a target for abuse.

“He got beat up for no reason. People went and bottled him and his mother in his own home. He got hammered. He looked like the Elephant Man,” Harrison said.

Cox wasn’t part of a gang and that made him vulnerable, she said.

“It is all about gun culture. Who is wearing bling (flashy jewelry), the latest trainers (sneakers), everything. If you are not wearing the same things as everyone else you are different and they will target you,” Harrison said.

London police set up Operation Trident in 1998 to combat gun crime in the black community, much of it involving drug dealers.

More than 300 police officers and 70 support staff are assigned to Operation Trident, which has claimed many successes. In 2005-2006, officers arrested and charged a suspect in every murder case investigated, won life sentences in 12 cases of gun crime and seized 117 firearms and $700,000 in cash.

“Guns have gone from the domain of the crack-cocaine dealers to now being an everyday accessory, a fashionable accessory, that young people want to be seen with, unfortunately,” said Claudia Webbe, vice chair of an independent panel that advises Operation Trident.

“I think that’s what’s motivating young people, where a gun has become almost a status symbol, demanding respect and power,” Webbe said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

AP reporter Raphael G. Satter in London contributed to this report.