Guns & Easy Targets

A letter to the Evening Standard:

"Gang membership and guns are increasingly part of urban youth culture. We make a serious mistake if we believe gun violence is essentially so-called black-on-black crime, especially when a causal link is made with absent fathers as both the government and David Cameron insist on doing. Among the many young people celebrating top grade GCSEs are scores of young black males from single-mother households.

Government concentrates at its peril on on the identity of the gunmen and not on the fact that guns are more readily available to them than MP3s. It beggars belief that, given the tender age of those now involved in gun violence, the police have such little success in stemming the supply of guns. Finally, if we focus on the influence of YouTube and 50 Cent instead of on equipping young people with strategies to help them puruse their interests, we will end up ptting an increasing number of them behind bars - and that by itself will not stop the killings any more than Jacqui Smith's acceptable behaviour contracts would."

Written by Professor Gus John, fellow, Institute of Education, University of London. And also a former Hackney Director of Education. Comment anyone?