UK - Live-bullet airgun a 'major problem'

[Steven Mace]

Thursday, 24 January, 2002, 10:18 GMT

Live-bullet airgun a 'major problem'

The airgun accounts for 50% of recovered weapons A leading police group says sales of an airgun, which can be illegally adapted to fire live bullets, must be banned.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) wants a national ban on the public sale of the Brocock air cartridge pistol because of the risk posed by the weapons.

ACPO firearms adviser David McCrone, who is Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, told BBC's Newsnight programme: "There is evidence which would justify banning them."

Mr McCrone said new legislation is required to give the Home Secretary the power to ban weapons like the Brocock air cartridge pistol when they become a threat to public safety.

The pistols are imported and distributed by the Birmingham-based company Brocock, which makes the air cartridge system that powers the air gun pellets.

Alan Shiers, an officer with the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), told Newsnight that "in excess of 50% of recovered weapons" were found to be this type of adapted airgun.

Brocock said in a statement: "Both the police and a Home Office ballistics expert confirm that we're already doing everything possible to prevent the illegal conversion of these products which are sold through a network of registered dealers."

Mr Shiers, who has been collating information from police forces across the country, said: "I would say in excess of 50% of recovered weapons, especially in London, are this type of weapon."

Special sleeves

He described that figure as a "conservative estimate" and said the situation is a "major problem".

"We're having reports of this type of weapon being recovered not just in London where the problem started - but it's now spread to Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol all over the country."

When used legally, the airgun fires small pellets using a compressed air charge in a cartridge that is loaded into the pistol.

But criminal gangs have been adapting the guns by fitting special steel sleeves inside the chamber of the gun, enabling live .22 calibre bullets to be fired.

In October, Bradford taxi driver Mohammed Basharat was murdered with a converted Brocock pistol.

This weapon had been drilled out to take more powerful .38 calibre bullets.

In their statement, Brocock also said : "We are advised by the police that some illegally converted weapons have been recovered.

"We accept there may be a rare occurrence of illegal conversion and are co-operating with the police in every way.

"Brocock air cartridge pistols are purchased by our customers for the legal pursuit of their sport.

"We have not considered removing a legitimate and tightly regulated product from the market."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/england/newsid_1779000/1779349.stm

Steve Mace

[Steven Mace]

Converted air guns “major problem”

By Wesley Stanton

03/02/2002

The BBC recently reported that the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has called for a ban of Brocock air guns which operate on the air cartridge principle, claiming that the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) reports that `up to half of the firearms found at crime scenes are such air guns adapted to fire live bullets.` NCIS’s spokesman, Alan Shiers, described the figure as a "conservative estimate" and the situation as a "major problem".

We rang NCIS to speak with Shiers to get a precise figure on exactly how many guns this was. He was unavailable and the chap in the PR office wouldn’t actually tell us anything at all (even if Shiers was on holiday or just avoiding calls). So we rang ACPO, to be told that there was no official statement, and that they’d get back to us.

Indeed they did. We received an official statement from ACPO (with the curious sub heading ‘FOR USE IF ASKED ONLY’) containing quotes from David McCrone, ACPO’s spokesman on the criminal use of firearms:

“The Brocock Air Cartridge Gun, represents a danger to the public because of the relative ease by which it can be converted to be a fully functioning firearm, prohibited under the Firearms Act. There is evidence from all over the country of such weapons being converted and then used in crime, including several murders. It is likely that several hundreds have been converted into prohibited firearms but thousands of the weapons exist and are readily for sale without any form of licence restriction.”

“The Brocock, however, is the most prevalent converted weapon currently and highlights a weakness in the present firearms laws.”

The evidence for this “major problem” and “danger to the public” is precisely six guns. That’s right, six. Half a dozen have been found – which might be a very good reason for why neither the NCIS spokesman nor the ACPO press office wanted to put a figure on it. And to make matters worse, not all the six are Brococks. It beggars belief.

Around 10% of these weapons recovered from crime scenes are conversions – whether it be Brococks, other air cartridge guns, starting pistols or creatively-engineered pieces of copper pipe. NCIS was talking about 13 in total – and slightly less than half of these are converted air cartridge guns. Six. Let’s not forget the 90% recovered that aren’t conversions – illegal, bullet-firing guns that have been acquired through the black market. An area that the police appear powerless to do anything about.

But if McCrone seriously believes that a gun-toting crack dealer’s weapon of choice is going to be a converted .22 Brocock (when for the sake of a few quid more, he can get something else illegal with considerably more stopping power), then he’s being daft. And if he doesn’t believe it, then his comments are misleading, and possibly disingenuous. We don’t know which – but clearly, someone needs to revisit the real issues here, and make a different statement to the National Press.

http://www.Leadshot.com/story.asp?id=444

Steve Mace