How should we deal with gun crime?

i) Blank-firing replica guns imported from other EU countries where they can be legally bought, before being converted into lethal weapons. Weapons such as a Brockock ME38 (a compressed air pellet gun) could easily be converted to take a .22 round, and were only outlawed in the U.K in 2003. Police estimate 75% of firearms are converted replicas or reactivated weapons.

ii) Weapons are imported from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia meant British soldiers were stationed there on NATO peacekeeping duities. They had access to weapons (see below). After the conflict, weapons were transported across land borders either singularly and on mass. Any armed conflict has to involve weapons, and handguns that make their way onto the streets in Britain can date back to the Second World War. More recently weapons were brought back from the Falklands.Weapons are brought back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers have been convicted of smuggling guns from ammunition back from conflict zones while still on in the military. Military personnel despite facing tough sanctions if detected are well versed in how to evade detection.

iii) There were a large amount of handguns imported into Ireland during the troubles. These passed into the hands of paramilitaries of both sides, and following the troubles are now sold. Some groups in Britain had contact with loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, and it is easy to move between the two countries due to their close proximity.

iv) Guns can be bought on the internet. It was the West Midlands (UK) Police Serviceunearthed a bulk trade of firearms on eBay, leading to the exposure of international gun suppliers. As a result the investigation conducted by the Force's High Tech Crime Unit won the 2004 International Law Enforcement 'Cybercrime' Project award. Despite prohibitions and there have been U.K citizens convicted of buying guns from a US websites.

vi) Legally held shotguns and other weapons are occasionally taken in burglaries and end up in criminal circles; these can be sawn off and then concealed. Illegal and Formerly legal guns will fall into the hands of criminals, who in turn trade them and sell them. On some occassions guns are hired out by criminals rather than sold, with much lower rates if they are are to be returned unfired.

Talking the flow of weapons might be one way to stop gun crime, but is it the best? Well put basically no. You can kill with a knife, and even if we stop the flow of guns, we are still not likely to stop a rising tide of youth on youth violence. We might stop young people shooting one another, but they will just stab each other instead. Tougher sentences might seem a good idea, for example harsher sentences for knife carrying, but if offenders have an ounce of sense they can just replace their knife with a screwdriver. It hardly solves the problem. For every harsher sentence there is a means of adaptation for the committed offender. So to deal with the problem, it is to the committed offender we must turn.

We then need to think about what it is that makes someone carry a gun. It is a choice that individuals make, and we could locate the sum total of the blame solely on the individual's shoulders. then we could lock up the offender and throw away the key. But will that stop the next young man stepping in to take the offenders place ? Prevention is better than cure - and the real thing we need to think about is the social conditions that underpin firearms carrying.

The rise in firearms offences is linked to youth, drugs, inner-cities and masculinity. It is linked to male expectations of what it is to be a man, and these are frequently made in light of what, really, amounts to very limited life chances. The role models for young people are not always positive, and the wealthy drug dealer, for many young men is the only role model they see around who they have a chance of emulating. The wealth drug dealer can often demonstrate all the trappings of social status, and they get what many young people want most, 'respect'.

While there will always be some privileged backgrounds that use guns in the act of committing crime (the case of Jeremy Bamber springs readily to mind), the reality is that those examples are so few and far between as to be exceptional. For the most part it is young men, living in poor inner-city environments and who will likely never amount too much beyond the prison cell, regardless that will end up picking up a gun.

The iconography of gang movies appeals because more often than not it represents people who are like them. When they do become involved in the drug trade (because it seems the best career move open to them) a gun is a necessity. It is there to protect them, to stop them feeling vulnerable, for the hell of it, and for all manner of reasons aside. However, by the time they pick up the gun it is too late.

If we look hard we will see a number of things in the backdrop to many of the gang and gun crimes. Be it Croxteth, Longsight, Lozells or Brixton, you see much poverty, limited opportunity, social housing, and little for young people to do. If we really want to solve the firearms problem, is it not those things that we need to tackle?

If all this is stating the obvious then can we be sure that in the future will there be more youth clubs, more after school activities, more positive role models and more oportunity for young men?