Blair Backs Tougher Gun Laws for Youths

LONDON, Feb. 18 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Sunday that he wanted to lower to 17 the age at which a mandatory five-year sentence could be imposed for illegally possessing a gun. The announcement followed the shooting deaths of three teenagers.

Britain has strict gun laws, and even most of its police officers do not carry guns. But a recent spurt in shootings and youth gang violence has alarmed many Britons and led to armed police patrols in areas of south London.

Currently, defendants older than 21 must serve a minimum five-year prison sentence if convicted of illegally possessing a firearm. But Blair, in an interview with the BBC, said, "We've got to lower that age . . . down to the age of 17."

Speaking ahead of an emergency summit on gun crime this week, Blair said his government is seeking to overhaul violent crime laws, including adding penalties for gang membership and measures to protect people who testify against gangs.

Police said gun crime fell last year, but 2007 has started with several shooting deaths.

In the past two weeks, James Smartt-Ford, 16, was gunned down at a south London ice rink and Michael Dosunmu, 15, was shot and killed by a gunman in his bedroom. Eight days later, Billy Cox, 15, was shot dead at his home, also in south London. Another man was shot and killed Saturday in London, and three people were injured in two weekend shootings in Manchester, in northwest England.

The killings, particularly those involving young people, have underscored the menacing culture of youth gangs, armed with knives, hammers and, increasingly, guns.

Although gun crime is still relatively uncommon here -- there were 50 firearm-related killings last year in England and Wales -- many Britons are concerned that young people see them as a cool accessory.

"We have got to analyze what is going wrong here," Blair said. "Is it a general state of British society, British young people? And I think it isn't. It is about a specific problem within a specific criminal culture to do with guns and gangs."

Some say the shootings are a symptom of troubled British youths and families.

"The issue here is the circumstances they grow up in, the broken families -- and that's not confined to any one sector of society -- and the massively rife drug culture," David Davis, a leading member of the opposition Conservative Party, said Sunday. "The problems have been growing for a decade."