Tenth of teen boys ‘carry guns’
One in ten teenage boys in London has carried either a real or replica gun in the past year, most of them for their own protection, a new report suggests.
A survey by Safer London Youth, carried out by the Communities that Care charity, revealed one in seven teenagers under the age of 16 knew someone who had brought a gun to school, while one in ten said they had carried a knife at some point in the past 12 months.
The findings, leaked in The Times, also revealed that white boys were more likely to have carried a firearm than their black peers.
The most common reason for carrying weapons was for self-protection rather than to cause trouble, the survey of more than 11,000 teenagers found. Only a very small number had been caught by the police.
Shadow home secretary David Davis attacked the government over the figures, describing them as “extremely alarming”.
