Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- The UK gun surrender that has been ongoing over the last two weeks has ended. A lot of airguns, imitations firearms, replicas and antiques have been turned in. A couple of AK47s made headlines.
Here is a headline from Northumbria:
AK-47 gun shock as assault rifle among huge haul of weapons handed in to Northumbria Police
A closer look at the Northunbrian article reveals some interesting information. The AK-47 and two machineguns were all turned in together. They were deactivated collectors items, and were legally deactivated.
But the requirements for deactivation have changed and become much more restrictive.
From 2 May 2017, the new legal provisions on firearms in the Police and Crime Act 2017, prohibit the sale, loan or transfer of any firearm that has not been deactivated to the current Home Office Technical standard.
Guns deactivated under old standards could still be owned, legally. It appears the two machine guns and the AK-47 fell into this category.
This terrifying AK47 assault rifle that was being kept in a Tyneside home is now off the streets.
The gun, which police say is the type of weapon favoured by lone wolf terrorists, has been handed in to police as part of a firearms surrender campaign.
It was being kept in a home along with two equally fearsome machine guns, all of which had not been fully deactivated and could have fired fatal rounds.
The article reports “a total of 280 firearms” were turned in to police over the last two weeks. Here is the break down in types reported.
The weapons handed in are as follows.
6 Pistols.
8 Revolvers.
22 Rifles.
92 Shotguns.
40 Imitation/Blank firers.
102 Air weapons.
10 others(including ornamental, taser & flare gun).
The total of those numbers is 280. Over half are not firearms. 152 are air weapons, imitation/blank firers, and “ornamental,taser & flare gun”. This is a greater percentage than what I observed in Australia, where about 25 percent of the guns that I observed being turned in were air guns. The 102 air guns are 36 percent of all the guns turned in in this sample from Northumbria.
Air guns in both Australia and the UK were virtually unrestricted for decades until fairly recently. In the United States air guns are not considered firearms and can be ordered by mail in most states, with the exception of New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Only a few of the items turned in were valuable antiques, at least in this sample. It is hard to know how costly the double barrel shotguns turned in are. Some English makers such as Holland and Holland, Westley Richards, Purdey, Boss, and others.
Many of those shotguns are worth tens of thousands of dollars. Many are still being made today, with wealthy Americans providing enough work for those fabulous gunmakers to thrive. Boss, Westley Richards, and Purdey all celebrated centennials in the last five years.
A couple of percussion revolvers more than a hundred and 50 years old were turned in for destruction. In a small bow to reason, museums will be offered a chance to take historical guns for their collections.
©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
The next time the U.K. needs firearms , send them our liberal dem. to disarm the enemy .
@MB, Because they are subjects not citizens. They are replaceable assets like a horse or cattle. They are to be used to protect the government during war; fund the government through taxation; and do the labor that needs to be done. That is the European model.
@wild, I know why the Europeans hate their population having access to guns. The constant erosion of access to weapons will ultimately cost Europe it’s culture, heritage, and eventually existence due to invasive sub-species. So we are watching the complete decline of Europe. Thank God we have 400 million guns in hands of citizens in America, now if we can keep the DemoRats from trying the same actions here as in Europe, we will survive.
There are not enough demorats withsnough stones here in the US to take even a significant portion of the 400+ millions of guns we have in private hands. Then there is the issue of once tstarted, many wil decide to go after THEIRS…… seems already plenty of uffishul types leave their arms, bought with OUR money, lying about and pretty welll available. It was one of these, carelessly left in a car in San Francisco, that armed that dirtbag illegal alien invader so he could murder Kate Stenle. Then the stinking jury thought that was just fine and dandy, and… Read more »
@WB How is that any different from the US model these days? Perhaps before the Progressive Era you’d have had a point but not anymore.
@Darren, Here is one difference… our Queen had to leave office last January 20, 2017!
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
@Darren,Perhaps, but I think that the citizens are ready for a political revolt… and a new boss. A great Christmas gift would be “Senator Roy Moore” from the great and patriotic state of Alabama.
Yawn, same tired old fail, thinking that the other guy will fix everything. Sometimes you just have to repeat yourself
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Most people turn in junk just to get money. That’s why they stopped doing so-called gun buybacks here in PA. Here’s video of one of the last ones they did:
https://americangunnews.com/gun-crime-continues-to-rise-in-gun-free-britain/
Say, Ammoland, what happened to my comment?
What will the population of England do the next time invasion threatens their country? Throw rocks? Whine to Americans to please send your family heirloom weapons? Sorry, you lose. Those who are willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserve neither. BTW, still waiting to see those thousands of American guns from WW2 returned to their rightful owners.
Oh no worries, Mate.. they’ll simply pop round to the sportsmen’s shop and lay in a few cricket bats. Oh wait, last time they did that, their barmy overlords banned THEM as well. Sorry lads, seems you’ll be on your own.
They seem to have the same disease that afflicts so many liberals in California and New York/New Jersey which are also full of idiots.
I didn’t realize the UK was full of so many idiots!
With all the problems of terrorism going on in the world and especially Europe why in the world would any country want to disarm the citizens from helping protect themselves.
How soon they have forgotten who had to come save their butts during WW2
Missouri Born, Prior to WW2, Americans sent UK thousands of Civilian weapons to help protect their homeland and I think not very many were returned back to their original owners. I can recall just a few and that is about it.
@MB, Why would they want to disarm their citizens you ask because they are subjects not citizens. Subjects are replaceable assets like a horse or cattle. Subjects are to be used to protect the government during war; fund the government through taxation; and do the labor that needs to be done. That is the European model.
@W. Bill you just described the democrats of the U.S. I wondered where they got their ideas, knowing they are not smart enough to think things like that up.
@Tcat, yes, that is so.