Reaction to gun crime in the UK has been mixed

Although the level of gun crime is still considered to be relatively low, some commentators fear an increase in inner-city gang and gun culture.

They are also concerned guns are falling into the hands of young people.

Three commentators look at the reasons for increasing in gun crime and how the problem can be addressed.

It certainly is a worry if you've got young people who think a gun is a fashion accessory. I actually don't believe that's true. I think that's a glamorisation. It's an easy-cop out to say that this issue is about glamorisation.

They are carrying them to act as a tool of the trade and the trade that sits underneath the carrying of the gun is usually around drugs.

It is a tool of the trade and these people are involved in very organised crime.

We have to understand that yes there is growing evidence to show that some young people are carrying guns in relation to lower level crime but the real issue is around that higher ranked drug market.

The starting point has to be our schools in the inner city because it is not by chance that a couple of weeks ago GCSE figures for Afro-Caribbean boys in particular were way towards the bottom of that scale.

Going for jobs and being unable to get a job is the source of a lot of this difficulty.

At the same time I accept that there is an element of choice involved. Some of these youngsters do choose to follow a life of crime and I think the question we have to face in society as a whole is how do we break that cycle?

How do we inject into these young people a desire to do something else other than follow a life of crime?

In many ways Operation Trident and other specialist programmes set up by the police tend to underline that suggestion that somehow black communities are endemically criminal.

It treats members of the black community as somehow a separate race.

Once we get over that attitude that somehow we are a breed apart, we can start to make some progress.

Mica Paris says black males feel excluded from society

There is not even a big reason to do these things. They just seem to be killing each other over really trivial things.

It is a mixture of things. It is a mixture of feeling very excluded from society for one.

Secondly black women are doing a hell of a lot better than black males at the moment and it seems that they are just totally excluded.

They feel that coldness and I think that is why that lifestyle appeals to them. It gives them a bit more street cred and status even if it is short lived.

It comes from society not including black males from when they are very young. This comes from black males who aren't doing anything wrong who feel stereotyped just walking down the street.

They always feel like they are target practice. People look at you and expect you do to do something wrong and you get this kind of rage and anger.

They need to feel that they are included in society. There has to be more opportunities given to younger black males.

As artists we have to be more conscious about what we're saying because there seems to be this leaning towards glamorising violence. I think as artists we have to be more responsible for what we are saying.

You have certain artists who are being very conscious but there are a lot more who need to do that because young people are looking at music and artists as role models.

We need more rappers coming out and really attacking what is happening to our young people.