Bullets shattering windows and splintering doorframes send waves of fear through the homes of local people - particularly when children play close by.
Targeting a house with gunfire is a common tactic for street gangs looking to intimidate or warn rivals, but this is a city well-versed in the potentially tragic consequences of stray-bullets hitting unintended targets. It is heartening that the statistics paint a positive picture.
The number of shootings is at the lowest recorded in two decades, and so far this year there have been no murders involving firearms in Merseyside. However, this year city region has seen a teenage girl critically injured in crossfire as she waited at a bus-stop, a woman in her 50s shot in the leg and two men wounded by gunfire in serious incidents in Wirral.
READ MORE: Locals fear 'gang dispute' as bullets shatter window opposite children's play park
Shots were fired in one area of Wavertree, around the vicinity of Mill Lane between the Picton Clock and Edge Lane, three times between April 21 and June 7. Locals believe an ongoing dispute between drugs gangs is fuelling violence locally.
This week has also seen reports of gunfire near the Arrowe Park pub in Wirral, and on Monday night shots were fired at a house in Kirkby. The end of May saw a teenager shot in the leg in Birkenhead, while earlier in the month shots were fired at a property in Stoneycroft.
In the most serious incident, on March 1, a 15-year-old schoolgirl was critically injured when bullets struck her in the chest as she waited at a bus-stop in Upper Warwick Street, Toxteth. Rio Jones, 18, of Jermyn Street in Toxteth, has since been charged with attempted murder over the incident.
How criminal gangs are storing and accessing illegal weapons is a core focus of Merseyside Police's approach to keeping down the number of shootings in the city. The force has publicised a number of surprising finds on public land, as well as highlighting what detectives are suggesting is a trend of criminals stashing weapons in the private property of completely unsuspecting people.
The motives for this area of focus are well-founded. On May 24 a man walking in Sefton Park found a plastic box with a working self-loading pistol inside. Two weeks earlier a sawn-off shotgun, alongside a "bladed weapon" was found stashed in undergrowth by St Andrew's Church in Kirkby
Yesterday police were called to an area of land next to the Leeds-Liverpool canal near Boundary Street, Bootle. A working and loaded handgun had been found by a member of the public.
Last month Merseyside Police took part in a national firearms surrender which saw 92 firearms handed in, including 36 found to be in working order, alongside more than 800 rounds of live ammunition. Alongside the initiative, the force also ramped up open-land searches. and urged the public to check gardens and outbuildings.
Speaking at the start of the firearms surrender, Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Kameen, head of investigations at Merseyside Police, told the ECHO: "We're relentless in our pursuit of serious and organised crime. We're enjoying, if that's the right word, lots of success in reducing our numbers of firearms discharges, so 43 this last year.
"On one hand we celebrate that because we had been having 90 to 100 in a year, so there has been some fantastic work there. But, at the same time, I'm really alive to the fact that 43 is still an awful lot and if you are the victim of those discharges or if you live in that street and that community, how terrifying must that be to have somebody or somebody's house shot at where you live.
"This is why it's so important, because if we can get one gun off the street it can make a real difference and what we saw just a couple of months ago with the (15-year-old girl) shooting, when she was an innocent schoolgirl stood in a bus-stop, caught in the crossfire, this is why it's so vitally important that communities work with us."
Yesterday, after the gun was found in Bootle, Detective Chief Inspector Rachel Wilson added: "This latest find just goes to show that criminals will hide weapons anywhere where it could end up in a child’s hands – whether that is in open spaces or in a resident’s garden.
"So I urge members of the public to be vigilant and look around your property to ensure that weapons have not been concealed there as criminals will conceal their weapons in the most unusual places. If you do find anything, don’t touch it but call 101 and we will take it from there."
