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Friday, July 28, 2006
BBC Gun Crime
Here are a few things which are illegal:
Buying a gun barrel without lawful authority
Possesion of a gun barrel without lawful authority
Conversion of a replica firearm to produce an item capable of firing
Possesion of a working firearm without lawful authority
Possesion of a section 5 restricted weapon without lawful authority (includes sub-machine guns or machine pistols)
Possesion of ammunition without lawful authority
Yet as seen on last night’s BBC news bulletin it seems that Adrian Addison, a BBC reporter has commited several of these crimes and commissioned the rest to be commited by ‘gun expert’ Richard Howell.
The Uzi bought by Mr Addison was deactivated by means of sawing down the middle and welding a rod in the barrel and by
this last part doesn’t make much sense to me so I have just reproduced it as per context. Grinding the breech wouldn’t necessarily remove the pin so I’m assuming this isn’t quite technically correct. Regardless these are no small things to fix, you are either going to require new parts (which would be illegal to buy) or you are going to need to machine new parts - which would be illegal. Of course if you have the equipment and knowledge to do this then you can probably make a unit from scratch anyhow.The breach block - which contains the mechanism to actually fire the bullet - is ground down so there is no firing pin
Of course you can, but as implied you need the knowledge, the parts and the kit.“It’s not necessarily a simple task but, a couple of spare parts and some specialist machinery,” our gun expert Richard Howell told us. “And we can get this gun to fire again.”
Later in the piece we are treated to the sight of the Uzi in working order again. So the deactivated unit has been illegally reactivated and is now a Section 5 weapon illegally possesed.
Will we be seeing charges brought against Mr Addison and his ‘underworld armourers’? Don’t hold your breath.
Sensational journalism here.