New measures to tackle gun crime

Apparently Tony Blair is about to announce new measures to tackle gun crime, according to this report from the BBC.

This is of course in response to a spate of gun killings primarily in London and recently involving a lot of teenagers as victims.

The thing that concerns me is that what ever will be announced will have been rushed out to meet negative headlines and will be half baked, reactionary, authoritarian and rather more importantly unlikely to work.

There has, since 1997 quite possibly before, been trouble brewing with both guns, criminality and our youth. The reasons are many and varied. For example family breakdown will form a part of the problem, as will the breakdown of discipline in schools.

However what ever has led to this spate of killings is complex and the solution clearly can't be some knee jerk headline catching trailed response. The problems run deeper and need more thinking about.

The Sunday Times has this.