Comment: Help the police end gun menace

Jan 7 2008 by Liverpool Daily Post

Less than a week into the New Year, we are already having to report on a fatal shooting on the streets of Merseyside.

LESS than a week into the New Year, we are already having to report on a fatal shooting on the streets of Merseyside. On this occasion, a 35-year-old man was shot dead at the wheel of a gold Land Rover in a suburban street in the Halewood area.

Police have said the victim was known to them and that the shooting was not a random attack.

They have also emphasised that people living in the area should not be alarmed by what has occurred.

What is particularly worrying is that, once again, innocent bystanders have been caught up in the crossfire.

Police were called to the scene because the Land Rover had crashed head-on into a silver Ford Focus.

The discovery of the wounded man – whom police believe was shot in the head through the windscreen as he was driving – turned the investigation into a murder inquiry.

Fortunately, the 36-year-old male driver of the Ford, who was not connected with the shooting, and is believed to be a taxi driver, suffered only minor injuries.

But it shows once again the callous disregard for human life shown by these gunmen, who are continuing to blight our streets.

We are sure the police are, as they say, "working very hard to eradicate" Merseyside’s gun crime problem.

But this type of incident, along with others which have preceded it, continues to strike fear into the heart of law- abiding citizens who are simply going about their business.

At the same time, it is necessary to keep the issue in perspective and stress that such incidents are still thankfully relatively few in number.

But the depressing regularity of such shootings – and the consequent risk of being "in the wrong place at the wrong time" – heightens the need for the police to receive everyone’s support, and all the help they can get in their attempts to cleanse the streets of these mindless and cowardly gunmen.