Friday, February 16, 2007

The way of the gun

As readers of my blog have no doubt deduced that I work in south London the recent shootings have been headline news for the last week.

So are we saying that these young teenagers are running around with guns ? I don't agree

Is it a parental supervision issue ?

Is there any real answer to these awful crimes. I know there is no simple solution and only a multi faceted approach will ever begin to address these issues , but also its worth to note that is not just a black community issue but a whole community issue.

What I do know is that these young men in all likely hood never envisaged that their world would end so quickly and so brutality and no doubt the families are devastated, my thoughts and sympathies goes out to those left behind.

What are your thoughts ?

3 comments:

Quartz said...

This lad's death has served a useful purpose: his friends, the people at his school, now know what really happens when you get shot. Hopefully they'll be markedly less inclined to play with guns.

Paul Simms said...

Sorry to disagree with you, at least on one count. I do think it's a parental issue.

I have wrote a bout this in my blog.

We are who we are due to a number of influences during our upbringing. To name a few of them, those influences come from culture, religion, peers, education,television and the media, personal experience and most importantly parental influence.

We tread a fine line walking through life, being bombarded on all sides with information from various groups.

Magazines that say you will only be attractive if you have the eating habits of a hunger striker. Kids are influenced in loads of areas, and the kudos of joining a gang and getting a gun (that seemed so cool on TV) is easily understandable. Throw in absentee/uncapable parent/s and it is almost predictable.

Big Pleb said...

It was obvious the way the country is going that there would be more and more teenagers getting shot, with mac10s and uzis being used. The home office are worried about bringing in taser for patrol officers!!!! I dont know about taser it wont be long before we the front line bobby is issued a Gloch.
Have a look on my site for how the US deal with firearms.

Investigations - 183 | Crimes Solved- 85 | No Crime - 47
% Detection rate - 46.4 % (Counting year April 08 )


Investigations - 129 | Crimes Solved- 53 | No Crime - 36
% Detection rate - 49.3 % (Counting year April 07 )