Downing Street is examining plans for a fundamental overhaul of knife and gun laws amid claims that the current legislation is a “convoluted mess” which even police officers struggle to understand.

The proposals include new penalties for possessing replica weapons and scrapping the 3in rule on knives that means only larger blades are banned from the street.

The review follows a wave of gang-related violence and the murders of 18 teenagers this year in London, including that of Ben Kinsella, brother of former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, a week ago.

Gordon Brown’s senior advisers are considering a report by the Policy Exchange think tank that criticises Labour’s record on violent crime. The report dismisses official claims that crime is falling, stating that many offences against young people go unreported. “Chaotic street-level firearm offences have risen,” it says.

It reveals that one in five people aged between 19 and 24 knows someone who has been threatened by a gun or a knife in the past year, while nearly three out of four police constables believe gang crime has increased in the past five years.

The dossier, written by Bob Golding, a former assistant chief constable, recommends radical solutions including Northern Ireland-style mediation teams to broker peace deals between rival teenage gangs.

The report, entitled Going Ballistic, reveals confusion about the current gun and knife laws, with just 12% of police officers believing they receive adequate information and training.

“Legislation is a mess. There is no legal framework dealing with knives and offensive weapons as a whole,” says Golding.

A commission on gun and knife crime chaired by Cherie Blair, whose findings will be broadcast on Channel 4 tonight, warns that victims and perpetrators of knife crime are getting younger and the number of children carrying knives is growing.

According to Department of Health statistics, 38 victims of knife wounds are admitted to hospitals in England and Wales each day. Knife victims totalled 12,340 last year, a rise of 19 per cent on five years ago.

— Two security guards were stabbed on London’s main shopping street last night after confronting a gang of teenagers.

The group of eight boys, said to be in their early to mid-teens, were allegedly stealing clothes in the Nike Town store in Oxford Street. One of the guards was stabbed in the arm and lower back and the other in the leg. Neither is in a serious condition.

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