Tony Blair announced a major review of firearms laws today in the wake of five fatal shootings in London but insisted once again that the wave of gun crime sweeping British cities was “a specific problem within a specific criminal culture” rather than a reflection of wider social ills.

A man was shot in the leg in North West London overnight as armed gangs continued to show their contempt for the law. Another man was shot dead in East London yesterday and three others wounded in shootings in Manchester.

The attacks follow a spate of gun murders in South London, including the deaths of three teenage boys in the past fortnight which provoked a national debate on youth crime and prompted the Prime Minister to order a review of gun laws.

Mr Blair said today that he was considering various proposals, including lowering the age at which the mandatory five-year sentence for carrying a gun can be imposed from 21 to 17 to remove the incentive for gang leaders to give guns to minors. He also confirmed his backing for a New York-style crackdown in which police could be given new powers to mount surveillance on the homes of people suspected of possessing and using firearms.

“We have got to analyse what is going wrong here. Is it a general state of British society, British young people? And I think it isn't," Mr Blair told the BBC's Sunday AM programme.

“It is about a specific problem within a specific criminal culture to do with guns and gangs, which doesn’t make it any less serious, incidentally, but I think it’s important therefore that we address that actual issue. How do we make sure that these groups of young people within these specific criminal cultures, who are getting into gangs at an early age and using guns, how do we clamp down on them very hard and provide solutions for that?”

Mr Blair denied that the announcements were a “knee-jerk response” to the recent killings. “There’s always a danger of that and you’ve got to guard against it," he said. "That’s why it’s important to point out that overall there’s some good news on crime, and in particular gun crime.

“However, if you talk to the police they tell you that there has been a worrying rise in the number of young people involved in gangs, and these gangs are increasingly using firearms.”

The Prime Minister said that a proposed law change to make gang membership an aggravating factor in sentencing was “the correct thing to do”.

In the latest shooting incident, a man was shot in the leg in Harrow Road, Harlesden, although police said that his injuries were not thought to be life-threatening. Two men were seen running away from the scene of the shooting just after 2am, one carrying a handgun. They then drove off in a vehicle.

The shooting of 15-year-old Billy Cox last week followed the gun deaths of James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, and Michael Dosunmu, 15, in the past two weeks.

As teams of armed police patrolled South London another man was murdered in the east of the capital yesterday. Gunmen shot a 28-year-old man in his car in Hackney before blasting him again as he tried to escape.

A witness reported seeing three black men walking “confidently” away from their victim as he lay dying in Homerton High Street. He was rushed to Homerton Hospital by ambulance but was pronounced dead just before 6am yesterday.

Gabriel Ajayi, 50, whose third-floor flat overlooks the scene, was woken by three gunshots shortly before 5.30am. He said: “I looked out my window and saw a man lying on the ground on the road and I saw three guys running away. All of a sudden they came back and shot him twice again at close range.”

The murder is being investigated by detectives from Operation Trident, the Met’s black-on-black gun crime investigation unit. Police said that no arrests had been made and the latest shooting was not being linked to the earlier south London murders.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, welcomed the review but was more sceptical about No 10's plans to hold a gun crime "summit".

“Yet again we are seeing the Prime Minister reacting to a headline rather than dealing with the issues in the long-term,” Mr Davis told Sky News. “This should have happened in 2003 with the legislation that created the mandatory five-year sentence. We now have to think what are they going to do for 16-year-olds and 15-year-olds because these gangs won’t stop at using younger kids to carry guns, drugs, whatever it may be.”

He added: “This will be the fourth summit on gun crimes and gangsters the Prime Minister has had and at every turn the problem has still got worse. This is not the first time he has done this. We had the same in every other area of crisis in the Home Office. Summit after summit after summit. Quick reaction, quickly ill-thought out laws - all those things - leading to more problems.

"We have got to take some time. Think it through, do it properly.”

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