Thats a load of rubbish, because you have no industry means that they are going out to kill people with guns, the government offer them free homes, health care and even money yet they want more for doing nothing, you have to go out their and look for work.
Well thats not right at all.
Griffin is completely spot on here. Yes on face value it doesn't mean kids are going to shoot people, but common sense dictates it obviously goes deeper than that.
There are huge working class communities in Liverpool and the kids grow up with fathers who are traders, factory workers, processors etc. These kids are raised in that environment and see their futures in that manner (apart from the odd few obviously.)
I grew up with kids like these, I know how it works with them. I went through the same school process with them, and I know many of them are now working the factories in the industrial estates. They don't grow up aspiring to have a lifelong career, it doesn't even enter their minds as a possibility. They grow up expecting to be a laborer.
Some of my friends from school where incredibly intelligent lads. Some of the smartest lads I've ever known, however they simply would not accept a life away from where they grew up because its just bred into them ...its impossible for me to describe to someone whose never experienced or grown up in a similar social setting.
Taking away these industries has helped (I'm not saying caused as there are obviously many factors to consider) ferment this type of mentality. These kids have no place to fit in with "normal" escalator society, and so they stick together in tight knit communities. Gangs are a by product of this type of life. The "postcode" gangs of Norris Green are a prime example.
This has gone on now for years and its such an ingrained mentality that violence, ignorance and the "outcast" lifestyle is all they have and know. Gun crime is merely a natural step-up.
Bringing back a strong industry within these towns would help a lot. It would give them a platform to society and demonstrate to them through peers and older working-class men (who arn't suite wearing ****-heads) that there is more to life than crime. The last thing these kids would do is put up with an office job with some snobbish gob-**** of a boss, or integrate with people they just cant relate to or even understand.