Gangs

by Tony Thompson

  Although he officially retired a few months after his last spell of imprisonment, Chris is still fully tuned into the growing gun culture. ‘Pricewise, you’re looking at around two hundred and fifty quid for a small, newish .22 revolver. You can get .32 automatics for a lot less, around a hundred pounds, but it’s almost impossible to get ammunition for them so they’re just for show. The older generation like .38 revolvers, good old-fashioned guns. The younger boys all want 9mm automatics and Uzi submachine-guns but they tend to end up with .22 revolvers because there are so many of them around. There are also some .22 automatics but because they’re usually converted from blank-firing guns, they tend to jam after each shot. You’re better off with a revolver.

  ‘The last gun I had was a Glock,’ says Chris. ‘It was brand new and cost me nine hundred pounds. Beautiful gun. I also had a .22 Derringer, which was just for my personal protection as it was easy to hide. It’s only one shot, but sometimes, up close, that’s all you need.’

  According to Chris, guns are easy; the hard part is getting hold of the ammunition. Tricks for dealing with the general shortage include wrapping clingfilm around smaller rounds to make them fit into larger calibre guns; converting blanks by adding special metal caps or, most commonly, ‘reloading’ used cartridges with new gunpowder and bullets.

  It’s just over half an hour before Matt, the gun-dealer, arrives. He nods at Chris and the three of us make our way to the gents’ toilets, squeezing into the cubicle furthest from the door. Anyone looking on would probably think we were buying drugs not guns, but this is how the majority of weapons are bought and sold – in the dark corners and lavatories of dodgy pubs.

  With Chris acting as lookout, Matt swiftly pulls a plastic bag from the folds of his jacket, delves inside and shoves a black lump of metal into my palm. The first thing that strikes me about the gun is that it’s much heavier than it looks, so heavy, in fact, that it’s almost a struggle to hold it with one hand. It’s as cold as ice and covered in a thin layer of oil, which stains my hands as I examine it, fascinated.

  ‘It’s a Browning Hi Power 9mm,’ says Matt. ‘Argentinian, someone’s souvenir from the Falklands, but it’s in good nick. Been well looked after. Guns last for ever, it’s only the ammo that gets fucked up. The clip’s half full of good stuff, but I can get you more if you need it.’

  I’m still turning the gun in my hand, too dumbstruck to speak. Then I start to panic: I’m a writer investigating a story. The last thing I want to do is actually buy the gun but I realise that I’m getting my fingerprints all over it – and, besides, Matt seems to think the sale is a foregone conclusion.

  I hand back the weapon and try to think of a way to avoid upsetting him, especially as he now has a loaded gun. Thankfully, Chris is there to smooth things over.

  ‘What’s the history?’

  ‘It’s been fired,’ says Matt, scratching his nose. ‘Dunno if anyone got hurt.’

  ‘I need something clean,’ says Chris, without missing a beat. ‘Sorry, mate, have to pass on this one. Let me buy you a drink for your trouble.’

  These days, a ‘clean’ gun generally means a reactivated one. Top of the gangster shopping list is the Brocock ME38 Magnum air pistol, which fires pellets using a cartridge of compressed air. Manufactured to high standards, gangsters quickly discovered that the air cartridge could be drilled out and used as a sleeve to hold a live .22 round. The simple procedure turned an innocuous air weapon into a lethal firearm.

  Within months of the discovery, converted Brococks became the choice of a new generation of wannabe gunmen. There were dozens of murders, shootings linked to the gun, including two separate high-profile incidents where Asher D of the south London music collective, the So Solid Crew, was caught in possession of a converted Brocock.

  Banned from general sale in the early part of 2003, the guns are still widely available. In the course of my investigation for this book I was offered three and actually managed to buy one legally, long after the supposed ban had come into place.

  After that, it was simply a matter of paying a visit to an underworld source to find out how to make the conversion and obtain some live ammunition. Hundreds of back-bedroom gun factories have been set up in homes across the country and detectives everywhere admit guns are being put on the streets more quickly than they can take them off.

  It didn’t stop there. I also managed to get hold of a brand new Glock 17, which had been converted to fire steel ball-bearings with all the force of a bullet, numerous canisters of CS gas, and a riot pistol.

  Then there was the stun gun. These weapons, which incapacitate victims for up to fifteen minutes, are officially classed as firearms, but have become increasingly popular with muggers and robbers as they are highly effective but cause no permanent damage.

  Stun guns are widely available on the Internet. I placed an order with a French company, and within a few days received a 200,000-volt stun gun through the post, even though they are prohibited in the UK. The stun gun I received is four times more powerful than the Taser models being used by British police forces.

  There are now as many as thirty thousand gang members across England and Wales and the numbers are rising rapidly. The number of gang members aged under sixteen doubled in 2003, and nearly half of all gang murders committed with firearms now involve victims under the age of eighteen.

  For many, it is the rise of these younger gangs that forms the most worrying aspect of modern organised crime. Youth gangs have always existed and, to some degree, have always been associated with violence, but as little as ten years ago, they were still considered a phase that teenagers went through.

  Today, however, those in youth gangs find themselves on the edge of organised crime proper. They have the opportunity to earn vast sums of money through crime and drug-dealing. They can look to older or former members of the gang and see the success and material wealth they have gained and set themselves a goal for achieving the same. Rather than a phase, gang membership now is the first step on the criminal career ladder.

  Steve Shropshire, an expert on gangs and youth culture told me: ‘Young people are being drawn into the gangs and crews in ever-increasing numbers and the average age of new members is falling dramatically. The gang culture is now inextricably linked with gun violence.’

  2002 saw a record 35 per cent jump in gun crimes. During that year there were almost ten thousand incidents involving firearms recorded in England and Wales and, although the largest increases were in metropolitan areas, the figures showed use of handguns was also growing in rural communities.

  Handgun crime has soared past levels last seen before the Dunblane massacre of 1996 and the ban on ownership of handguns introduced the year after Thomas Hamilton, an amateur-shooting enthusiast, shot dead sixteen schoolchildren, their teacher and himself in the Perthshire town. It was hoped the measure would reduce the number of handguns available to criminals. Now handgun crime is at its highest since 1993.

  New laws that make carrying a firearm an offence with a mandatory five-year sentence have won little favour with officers on the street. ‘It changes nothing,’ said one Drugs Squad detective, who asked to remain anonymous. ‘Most of the kids carry guns in order to protect themselves when they are dealing. They are going around with enough crack or heroin to ensure that they go away for ten years if they get caught. Because of that, they feel they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by carrying a gun. They carry them just for the hell of it.’

  Guns, it seems, are here to stay. And, with growing teen gang membership providing a ready supply of new recruits to the upper echelons of organised crime, the gang problem is here to stay too.

  About the Author

  Tony Thompson is the crime correspondent of the Observer. He is also the author of Gangland Britain, published by Hodder.

 

 

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