The shocking murder of two teenage girls during a party in Birmingham has shown how ineffective action by the Government and the police to control the use of guns has been.

Crimes of this nature are often confined to inner city areas where there are gangs and a real gun culture. But even in Sussex where gun crime was a rarity 30 years ago, there are now incidents every week.

Only yesterday, a man from Horsham was jailed for five years for threatening an elderly florist with a replica gun.

The Government has just announced it intends to introduce new laws to deal with gun crime and they are better late than not at all.

Home Secretary David Blunkett intends to introduce a sentence for carrying an imitation firearm in public. This should help to halt the all-too-common crimes, such as the one in Horsham where the florist was understandably unable to know whether the gun he was being threatened with was real.

But far tougher action will be needed to break up the gangs who are making some inner cities places where innocent teenagers can be killed by indiscriminate shooting.

Lessons can be learned from several American cities including New York where gun crime has been falling as fast as it has been rising in parts of the UK.