West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson has written an open letter in today’s Birmingham Mail calling on girlfriends, wives and mothers to support the weapon surrender campaign.
The letter in full:
Over the last decade gun crime has reduced, primarily because of the work of local communities, but also because of tough action by the police.
Birmingham has seen a spike in gun crime over the last few months. That is something that I acknowledge and with the police force we are doing all we can to get weapons off the streets, to make sure that there is no return to where we were a decade ago.
Over recent months West Midlands Police have mounted scores of targeted operations and I have launched a community weapons surrender to encourage those who have weapons to dispose of them safely.
Making our neighbourhoods safer by getting weapons off the streets is a top priority and always will be. Gun crime has a corrosive effect on our communities that is why we need to get the weapons off the streets.
The weapons surrender will give people a place to safely off load items, which could have very easily destroyed lives, but the initiative will only be successful if the community backs it.
If you or a loved one possess an illegal firearm please put it in one of the many weapon surrender bins. It might just be the best decision you ever make. The message is clear, don’t carry a weapon, it is no way to protect yourself and ultimately there is a much greater chance that it will put you in even more harm.
These weapons are doing immense harm to some of our communities and the more weapons we can get off the streets the better and the safer we will all be.
In particular I am calling on girlfriends, wives, sisters and mothers; if there is a gun or ammunition in your house put it in a weapon surrender bin.
