FIREARMS Illegal guns used in most shootings

A special Home Office report on gun crime found that 129 victims out of 196 were killed by illegally held weapons, the Government disclosed yesterday. Analysis of homicides between 1992 and 1994 investigated 196 shootings in England and Wales.

In a Commons written reply, the Home Office minister Alun Michael said it was not possible to identify incidents where only non-fatal injuries were caused, but police figures showed that the largest number of shootings with such weapons took place in London, where there were 42 homicides.

Thirty-three shootings involved handguns and seven out of nine shotgun killings involved 12-bore shotguns.

The West Midlands force had 12 murders, of which six involved shotguns and six handguns and in Greater Manchester there was a total of six killings, and two of the victims died from Magnum rounds.