Current events in the United Kingdom.

The UK is often cited by gun control activists as a great example of how and why gun ownership should be restricted. Gun rights activists like to use it as a warning of how fast and incrementally gun legislation can take effect, and why it should not be allowed to.

I was rather glad to see this on the BBC site; Justice Secretary Jack Straw has said the level of gun crime is too high but has started to fall thanks to government measures.
Does he manage to convince you? I kept reading, because there are statistical tendencies and the perception of the real world, and digging deeper produced these articles from previous years:

"Last week Ms Dynamite performed a tribute concert to Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespeare, the two teenagers shot dead in Birmingham over Christmas. The tragedy gave a focus to recently published statistics suggesting that gun crime in Britain has risen by a staggering 35 per cent in the last 12 months. (related article)
John Pandit of Asian Dub Foundation and Community Music, a project which offers music education in deprived areas, believes: “If David Blunkett spent as much time looking at the situations that cause crime - drugs, unemployment, bad housing and lack of opportunities – then you might see a difference in the crime figures."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A944615

I couldn't have said it any better! They've already done away with guns, so they're turning to another scapegoat, rather than addressing the real underlying issues. I'd personally have added disproportionate and discriminatory punishments as well.

Here's a more recent article about Brittains Crime rate which the gun control groups are pushing forward as desirable, so no, the problem was not temporarily.

The events in the United Kingdom should be a warning to all of us: you cannot stop gun violence -or even halt it at that- by reducing gun ownership by law-abiding citizens.
You're not disarming criminals by passing legislation, and amnesty projects usually come up with junk, guns and knifes which were not likely to be used for criminal purposes anyway.

Articles added afterwards:
Violent crimes are going up