South Yorkshire Police’s Firearms Support Group provide  24/7 support in South Yorkshire, should an armed response be needed. When the officers are not doing this, they can be found in any of South Yorkshire’s secondary schools passing the message on to youngsters that ‘Guns and Knives Take Lives’. Since January 2007, over 50,000 young people have seen the presentation.

Find out when the Guns and Knives Take Lives Team are visiting your child’s school here.

Since the ‘Guns and Knives Take Lives’ initiative was introduced in 2005 we have reduced the percentage of firearms incidents attended involving young people from 46 per cent of all firearms incidents to just 12 per cent.

The stats

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Total firearms incidents (actual)	1627	1575	1945	2063	2589	2139	2123
Youth related incidents (actual)	778	695	896	584	469	303	257
% youth related	48%	44%	46%	28%	18%	14%	12%
% reduction on previous year	-	-4%	+2%	-18%	-20%	-35%	-15%

Working together

We haven’t achieved this alone, we have worked closely with other organisations in the region including; Barnsley Youth Services, Sheffield Futures, Sheffield Youth Court and even Scotland Yard.

 

Literature

We have produced supporting literature for parents and for schools. Download it below:

Advice leaflet

Information and education booklet

 

Development

Since the introduction of the Guns and Knives Take Lives initiative began it has developed every year and 2010 is no different. For the 2010/11 academic year we are introducing a suite of educational materials for the Year 9 and 10 Personal, Social and Health education (PSHE) curriculum  and we are also planning a year long weapons hand in.

Watch this website for the latest developments.