More than a decade after the West Midlands was dubbed the gun crime capital of England and Wales, new figures seen by BBC News show the number of shootings across the region has dropped significantly over the past six years.
West Midlands Police recorded 30 firearms discharges in the first seven months of 2026, down from 69 last year and 157 in 2020-21, according to data covering Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Black Country and Coventry. There were 148 discharges in 2021-22.
The improvement follows a period in the early 2000s when the region suffered high-profile shootings and regular gun fights between rival gangs. In 2002-03, the force recorded about 1,300 gun crimes, compared with 504 in the 2024 calendar year. The BBC notes the figures are not directly comparable because of differences in how they were gathered and published.
Simeon Moore, a former member of the Johnson crew, one of Birmingham's most notorious gangs of the 2000s, described the scale of violence at its peak. "Back then, there were shootings every day, reported shootings every day and unreported shootings every day," he said. Moore, who now mentors young people, added: "Things have calmed down dramatically since the early 2000s."