MERSEYSIDE Police have defended actions to fight gun crime, after the BBC aired a documentary on Liverpool’s gang culture last night.

Panorama’s Young Guns showed how children as young as nine are arming themselves with guns.

Crime expert Graham Johnson spent seven months living with the 20-strong Moss Edz gang, from Page Moss.

In response, ACC of Merseyside Police Patricia Gallan said: “Gun crime is the top priority for Merseyside Police and the force continues to do a great deal to address it.

“Young Guns briefly showed what Merseyside Police is doing to combat gun and gang crime. But it barely scratched the surface of what the force is actively doing, day in and day out, to get a grip of a problem also affecting major cities across the country, and real people.

“The reactive gun crime investigation arm of the Matrix was put in to place in 2006. In 18 months, we have taken 393 real guns out of the hands of criminals. Our success is also reflected in the sentencing. In the first six months of this year alone, 32 people were sentenced to 184 years for firearm offences.”