Criminals in Bradford are now more willing than ever to turn to guns to settle disputes or exact revenge.

A top police officer told the Telegraph & Argus that although there had been no significant rise in the number of weapons on the streets, a hard-line element was now more prepared to use them.

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Brown, pictured, vowed the West Yorkshire force would "never accept gun warfare", stressing it was coming down hard on those involved - with proven success.

He spoke after the latest shooting in Bradford and the launch of the T&A's campaign urging a crackdown on the rising tide of gun violence.

Sunday's shooting of a man outside an Asian restaurant was the city's seventh firearm incident in six months. One man has died and six others have been injured.

ACC Brown - from the force's central operations support unit - said: "We always take these matters extremely seriously and put our most senior detectives on the case."

And he backed the Telegraph & Argus campaign to stamp out firearms, saying the public could play their part in the fight.

He said: "The message is that any information can be of great assistance to the investigations into these crimes and we would support anything which helped this."

As well as staffing incident rooms, extra resources have been pumped into more armed response units, high visibility policing in potential hotspots and greater covert intelligence gathering, he said.

"The thing of concern which we are noticing is not necessarily the increase in the possession of firearms but the willingness of people to use them," said ACC Brown.

"A small minority of the criminal element are deciding to use guns rather than knives or fists," he said.

"I don't know why that is.

"Maybe they think it is so much easier or more effective to use a gun."

Drugs usually formed the backdrop for shootings in cities such as Bradford and Leeds, he added, saying the violence often related to bad debts, robbery or retribution.

"It might be that those they are going after maybe armed. I suspect there will be a culture of 'if they are armed, so will we be'".

And he said a growing number of the "higher criminal echelon" taking up firearms encouraged less hardened criminals it was "the thing to do".

Contrary to some beliefs, evidence suggested such shootings were not racially motivated but due to individuals' actions, said ACC Brown.

"I think there are no more guns than five years ago. We are not seeing a rush of effective weapons from Eastern Europe," he added.

"They are still using shotguns that have been owned legitimately and fallen into the wrong hands."

Other firearms, such as handguns had often "been around for a while."

"There is some evidence to suggest that guns are borrowed, hired or loaned for a specific purpose."

These were often kept in "safe houses" from where they could be easily retrieved although ACC Brown dismissed the idea of "criminal gun warehouses."

But, because such shootings were targeted, with the attacker and victim often "related in some way", the risk to the public was very low, said ACC Brown.

"I think someone would be grossly unlucky to get caught up in the crossfire. We have not seen random shootings."

The force has ruled out routine armed patrols as have been deployed in one troubled area of Nottingham.

ACC Brown explained that West Yorkshire's shootings had fallen over a wide area rather than one estate.

"The overt arming of officers would not be beneficial and would increase the fear of crime unnecessarily."

The answer was maintaining well equipped armed response units, high-visibility policing and covert detective work, he said.

And he added: "We will never tolerate gun warfare and will deal hard with and chase hard those involved."

And a spokesman for Bradford police, said that, over the last six months "scores of detectives had worked around the clock" investigating firearms offences.

He added: "The fact that 40 arrests had already been made should reassure the public that we police these incidents positively and use all our skills and experience to investigate offences of this nature." She stressed the courts also took a dim view of gun crime, passing stiff sentences to any offenders.

e-mail: drew.kendell@bradford.newsquest.co.uk