IT is not just residents of inner cities who have to be wary of the increase in gun crime. Reporters Clare Kelly and James Clements look at its impact on south Bucks

THIS year is likely to be remembered for the horrific growth in gun crime.

The killing of two sisters in Birmingham prompted a nationwide gun amnesty.

A mother in Nottingham was shot protecting her daughter.

A man in Leicester was shot in what could have been a road-rage incident and two other men in Reading were shot in a 'drive-by' shooting.

But despite the local success in a gun amnesty, criminals continue arming themselves with real or imitation weapons.

When the gun amnesty was announced earlier this year police revealed there had been more than 120 gun-related incidents in Chiltern Vale in two years.

In September, 20-year-old Michael Scott, of St Hugh's Avenue, High Wycombe, was jailed for seven years for staging an armed robbery on the Disraeli Arms pub in Ford Street, High Wycombe, in January.

And in the past few months post offices have been raided in Sands, Longwick, Chinnor and Thame.

Criminals with weapons are not confined to inner city areas. They are increasingly prepared to travel to find soft pickings in rural backwaters - the latest armed incident happened a quiet country pub in Little Missenden.

Two men claiming they were armed failed in their attempt to steal a couple's car from them.

Police stress the level of all crime including gun crime in south Bucks is very low but the incidents during the past 12 months show gun crime is on the increase.

The most worrying trend is the use of imitation weapons.

An amnesty of replica weapons last year saw more than 400 handed into police stations in Thames Valley but there are thousands more out in circulation.

After an armed robbery at Longwick post office a ten-year-old girl found a replica pistol near the scene of the crime.

Many of them are so realistic trained firearms officers cannot tell them apart.

Terrified victims do not know if the gun is real or not, and in the words of one recent victim: "People do not stop to find out".

Police are at pains to stress that those who carry imitation guns put themselves at greater risk of being shot - because the people who will shoot them may well be the Thames Valley Police Armed Response Unit responding to an emergency call.


CHIEF Constable Peter Neyroud recently spoke of the "remarkable achievement" of having an unarmed police force in the 21st century.

But in the background are the armed officers of Thames Valley Police Armed Response Unit, a team of highly-trained officers on call to deal with crime involving firearms.

Three ARVs - armed response vehicles - are constantly on patrol in the Thames Valley region, with the two officers in the car armed with four Heckler and Kock MP5 carbines and four Glock 17 pistols.

With ARVs capable of speeds of up to 150mph, the team is only minutes away from any incident in the area, despite there only being three vehicles, although a fourth armed response car has now been drafted in to cover Heathrow airport.

More than 180 officers are authorised to carry weapons in the Thames Valley area with 120 officers assigned to the protection group guarding members of the Royal Family.

The rest are firearms officers or firearms instructors.

But the number of weapons handed into police during gun amnesties speaks for itself.

Last year's amnesty on imitation firearms saw over 400 ball-bearing and blank-firing weapons handed into the police.

Chiltern Vale police took in more weapons during the nationwide gun amnesty earlier this year than any other police area in Thames Valley Police.

The number of times armed officers were called to incidents rose 16 per cent last year.