THE mothers of two teenage girls who were shot dead in Birmingham at a new year’s party called upon owners of illegal guns to give them up at the start of a nationwide firearms amnesty yesterday.

Marcia Shakespeare and Beverley Thomas, whose daughters, Letisha Shakespeare, 17, and Charlene Ellis, 18, were killed as they left a party, said that the crime had devastated their lives.

“As mothers, our lives have been turned upside down and the horrific trauma we have experienced will always stay with us,” Mrs Shakespeare said, in a joint statement with Mrs Thomas.

“We have all been totally devastated by the loss of Charlene and Letisha and there is nothing we can do to bring them back. That is the reality of gun crime.

“It seems impossible to think that anything positive could come out of this terrible tragedy. But one thing has: a rallying call in the community to say enough is enough.”

Charlene’s twin sister, Sophie, and cousin, Cheryl Shaw, were wounded in the same assault. Detectives say that the four young women were the innocent victims of a confrontation between two rival armed gangs.

The growing gun culture among young people in Britain’s inner cities has led to police introducing the month-long amnesty for illegal weapons. They are alarmed by a 35 per cent rise in gun crime last year and that weapons are now often seen by youths as fashion accessories.

Referring to a memorial concert for the two girls that was held at Aston Villa Football Club, Mrs Shakespeare said: “We were all touched by the amazing support shown at the tribute concert and the way our personal tragedy has brought the community together in support against guns.

“The firearms amnesty is a chance for the community to stand up and do something against gun crime. It is a chance for people who own weapons to give them up. The police want your guns. Give them up for Letisha and Charlene.”

Under impending government legislation, anyone caught with an illegal firearm will be subject to a minimum five-year prison sentence. The £500,000 advertising campaign for the amnesty uses the slogan “Get the guns off the street”, and is being run through radio stations, nightclubs and national and local newspapers.

The amnesty is the third in the past fifteen years. During the last amnesty, called after the massacre at a school in Dunblane in 1996, 23,000 firearms and 700,000 rounds of ammunition were handed in.

Hundreds of police stations have been given special safes to store the weapons and police cars in London will carry ballistics bags for weapons handed in while on patrol.

Most of the weapons will be destroyed, but if police suspect they have been used in a crime they will be examined by ballistics experts.

The first gun was handed in at lunchtime yesterday at Uxbridge police station in West London. A man gave police a 12-bore shotgun that he said he had owned for 20 years and had used to shoot pigeons.

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