Burgers and bullets.

I was just reading the newspaper with one eye on the TV news, when my attention was caught by a number of camera shots of an area that I had once known very well. It was Brixton in South London where I grew up.

I know that building, I thought. It used to be the Prince of Wales pub and now? …It’s a bloody ’McDonalds’! 

The TV report was about two teenagers having just been shot while waiting to be served, “the fourth such shooting in this area in the past week” said the reporter.

Who remembers Dunblane and the resulting knee-jerk reaction legislation which saw all handguns being banned in this country? … You do …  Well obviously someone forgot to tell the bad guys, for if today’s press reports of gang fights and drug trade related shootings are to be believed then some towns and cities in the UK must be ’awash’ with firearms. According to police statistics, firearms were used in 22,789 crimes last year and some kids now think that it is ’cool’ to “busta cap”. 

When I lived in Brixton the copper who stood outside the old ’Prince of Wales’ was protected by a whistle on a chain and a short wooden ’stick’. Now outside ‘McDonalds’ he probably sits in a car wearing body armour and has something a little more deadly than a ‘piece of wood’ to call on if threatened.

What should be done to stem this tide of gun crime ?

Well, right now, I have little idea, but don’t worry, I expect that our politicians have got some ‘think-tank’ working on it ….. Will they come up with an answer ?  ….

………………     Don’t hold your breath !