Major new effort needed to stop gun smuggling

3.50.00pm GMT Thu 24th Jan 2008

Commenting on today's recorded crime statistics, which show a rise in gun crime, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

"Violent crime - including most alarmingly gun crime - is still far higher than 10 years ago and has to be tackled much more vigorously.

"Police should be devoting more time to stop and searches for knives and guns, and the Government needs to clamp down with a major new effort to stop gun smuggling.

"Nine times more officials are allocated to tackling cigarette smuggling than gun smuggling, which is a crazy set of priorities."