An 11 year old boy has become the latest victim of the gun crime blighting Britain’s streets.
The murderer was riding a push bike, the victim was playing football and died in a children’s hospital of bullet wounds.
Merseyside Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe said Rhys Jones was an upstanding member of the community and vowed to solve the crime.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith says the government is tackling the problem of guns by increasing sentences.
What was your reaction to the death of Rhys Jones and do you think tougher legislation is the answer?
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15 comments so far
I have submitted a petion to No 10 Downing Street as follows:
The current legislation on the possession of guns and knives is obviously not a sufficient deterrent to prevent the escalation of murders on Britains streets. Therefore we petition the Prime Minister to allow a public referendum on the reintroduction of capital punishment.
If you agree you can sign the petition at the following address.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/capital-p
- Posted by D.ButlerThe police need to spend more time making checks for arms, instead of hindering motorists with speed cameras.
- Posted by EndiCapital punishment, send offenders to the front line, more education (with healthy fear of teachers and parents).
- Posted by EndiIt is not enough that there is an age requirement to drink, smoke and watch porn. Violent movies and games should be banned from kids. Removal of such toys like platic guns as well.
I think the following steps might stop gun crime:
1. Identify the root causes of possesing guns and knives, and address these causes seriously.
- Posted by Robiee Islam2. Introduce a caring and learning education system lead by honest and dedicated teachers.
3. Stop violet vides games and films.
4. Give examplary punishment to offenders
5. Give examplary punishment to dishonest law enforcing agents.
6 Enhance effective information communication about gun crimes and consequences.
7. Help trouble parents/carers to reform and help them to guide their children.
I do not agree that legislation alone is the key to resolving the gun crime problem we are experiencing.
I find it difficult to accept that the mind of someone who is intent on killing is concerned about the potential ramifications. They will expect to get away with it, therefore it doesn’t matter to them how long a jail sentence might be.
The may never be a 100% successful solution to this problem, however I recommend money is channeled from other areas to fund increased Patrols by officers on ‘The beat’. Local councils spend large amounts of money paying for flowers and for men to water them, in vans paid for by us.
I would gladly sacrifice the pretty town centre look for the security of our children!
I was watching the news with my 6 year old daughter this morning and I had to turn it off. There was talk of three shootings; Rhys Jones, a man in Manchester and the shooting at the Police on the M5.
The availability of guns in this country seems to be on the increase. However, the government do ot seem to be demonstrating any control over the situation. They need to act and they need to act now!
- Posted by K.HoustonYes, Tougher legislations and not a slap on the wrist. There should be community programs to keep the young minds busy and divert their attention in to positive channels.
More importantly parents should be forced to look into their children’s life else face prison. All Parents want somebody else (Teacher, Police, Govt.) to look after their children yet don’t want them to be disiplined by them. You can’t have it both ways.
- Posted by KumarZero tollerance on crime. Bring back the birch (especially for vandolism/graffiti) and National Service from 16-18 - followed by compulsory education/training until 21.
- Posted by AxelBan violent graphic video games - but not strategic planning-type war games where intelect, not hand eye co-ordination, are required.
Legalise and license drugs to take them out of criminal hands and maintain quality standards; also maintain records of drug users and offer rehab to adicts.
All these ideas have been rejected before and look where we are today.
Fine negligent parents too !
NATIONAL SERVICE IS THE ONLY WAY.. It will teach respect for authority and social skills that are obviously lacking in some parenting.
- Posted by A. ReaderBRING BACK NATIONAL SERVICE.
Gun crime is a symptom of the decline of law and order in our inner cities not a cause. We have hundreds of thousands of young men and women who have poor standards of education, poor job expectations and almost no social mobility. Crime on an organised scale gives possibly the only possible means of escape. We seem happy to forget about these people and allow them to suffer in silence, after all they are the most likely victims of gun crime, until the problems spill out of the estates into middle class suburbs. To tackle gun crime, tackle violent crime as a whole and to do this we need to follow the zero tollerance approach like in New York. At the same time we need to focus on improving social mobility to get rid of the learned helplessness that prevails in these communities. If we don’t the problems will stretch out from the inner cities to blight all out communities. If we take a zero tollerance approach to crime as a whole then the penalities for carrying any weapon, especially a gun, should be severe but we should aim to deter people from this path long before they consider taking up arms.
- Posted by Steve DavisI think the gun/knife legislation is serving no use. You only have to look at the rising gun/knife crimes in this country. These are CRIMINALS were talking about here. Criminals do NOT take any notice of laws. Drugs are illegal. Yet the streets are still rife with them.
It is the punishment that needs to be looked at here. The punishment in this country is NEVER enough. There is NEVER enough deterrent. I mean for crying out loud. If the murderers of this beautiful and talented little boy turn out to be teenagers as reported in media. Are we going to hear ‘names cannot be released for LEGAL reasons’ as is normally the case for under eighteens. WHY can you not release names????They took an innocent child that had EVERYTHING to live for. His life had not even begun and the life that he would have had has has been torn away from him, from his parents from his friends.The pain in Rhys’ mums face is unbearable to watch.
But as i posted in another posting. At the moment their emotions are of shock, numbness, pain. But in time this will turn to ANGER!!!! When the anger does come. Give these monsters to the parents, let them deal with him.But no, there is no justice in this country. Their names will remain undisclosed for ‘legal resons’. They will serve ‘life’. But what is life in this country??? 10…15 years. Probably less if they turn out to be ‘minors’. BUt they are in-human,monsters. It is the parents and family of Rhys that will serve the life sentence here. They will bear the pain and anguish for the rest of their lives. They are the ones that will never get over this. The last time they saw their beautiful child. A life cut so cruelly short in such a cruel and evil way.
God bless you Rhys and your family.Rhys another little angel in heaven.Our love is with you always xxxx
- Posted by RebeccaA number of measures that might help control errant youth:
- Posted by keith1. Allow teachers to thump kids again
2. Catch the scum - use big rewards (cheaper than overtime!)- more coppers - whatever it takes - the punishment becomes almost irrelevant if you catch all the offenders every time
3. address minor incidents - litter, abuse, grafitti - use resources to find the offenders - don’t allow them to get away with it - let them learn they will be caught early on - make the processing through courts FAST - no reports, no pleas in mitigation, no social workers - just evidence from officers- perhaps equipped with head cameras.
4. police to respond FAST to residents and not ignore them - they are important and teach scum they can’t get away.
my heart goes out to little rhys and 2 his mum dad,i hope the killer is caught he was only a little boy 4 god sake what is this world coming 2. some think got 2 be done my 11 year old boy saw the news we both could not take it in how could anyone do that. r.i.p little one bev
- Posted by bevMake parents accountable for the action of their children.
- Posted by Timothy RabaiottiCriminal gangs use minors to transport drugs and weapons, they are now using them as child soldiers knowing that they will not suffer the full wrath of the law.
Parents of offenders should be prosecuted with their children, if every time a minor comitted one of these crimes the parents were arrested and imprisoned it would send out the kind of deterent that does not exist now.
Maybe military service for all 16yr olds not going on to higher education should be enforced.
Real rewards - real force in areas where people are afraid to go out because of child gangs.
Protect the have a go heroes- empower members of the community to stand side by side when threatened by thugs, instead of living in fear of both the thugs and the legal system that protects them.
this petition has my full backing.the sooner capital punishment is returned the better.for goodness sake PM what are you waiting for,have a referendum and let the electorate decide.stop playing GOD!AND DO THE RIGHT FOR A CHANGE.
- Posted by william wilsonYes to all you state. I’m a 67 year old retired school security officer and feel very strongly that a human life has no value whatsoever in todays Britain.Little Sarah Payne lost her life at the hands of Roy Whiting and we now pay to keep him alive and I get very very angry having protected young females for 22 years of a 35 year career in the private security industry.Whiting should have hung and with DNA there won’t be any mistakes as in the past. Any help you need do contact me,we need justice returned and we need it now.
- Posted by Barry Harvey