More Merseyside Madness.

[1066]

I believe this anti-shooting zealot was also an advisor to NABIS the police firearms forensic outfit. I believe NABIS are some sort of "company" that need to generate income so will continue to try to find ways to expand their empire. Hence the push to get certificate holders to retain fired cases for later forensic examination.

[MistAgain]

I believe this anti-shooting zealot was also an advisor to NABIS the police firearms forensic outfit. I believe NABIS are some sort of "company" that need to generate income so will continue to try to find ways to expand their empire. Hence the push to get certificate holders to retain fired cases for later forensic examination.

Forensic scientist Martin Parker has been appointed as BASC’s new head of firearms. Martin joins BASC from the National Ballistics Intelligence Service, where he held the role of chief scientist.

As far as I am concerned , he has already put a foot into his mouth !

[Lever357]

I emailed Maria Breslin last night pointing out that the firearms they focused on in the article have not been able to be legally owned in the UK since 1996, for handguns, and I'm not sure if you could actually own a Skorpion! And they should make clear in the article that these weapons would not have been stolen from law-abiding firearms holders. She replied that she has asked the news team to review the article and then I received a separate email from an executive editor stating they were going to add a note to the article making it clear that weapons used by Cashman and the other killers are not able to be legally owned in the UK. Hopefully they'll think twice about what they are writing next time.

[Dark Skies]

and I'm not sure if you could actually own a Skorpion! ...

That's an emphatic NO! Not even in the relatively free-ish era of shooting sports could civilians own a fully automatic machine pistol.

"They did squeeze in a bit of truth, but couldn't bear to not come back on legal shooting peeps ...

"Machine pistols including Skorpions and the Glock handgun used in the murder of Olivia are section 5 firearms and cannot be legally owned. Police though are concerned legal weapons could also fall in to the wrong hands."

[MistAgain]

I believe that the BASC is filing an official complaint with the Chief Constable .

[Tallguy]

Licensed gun owners have been urged to hand in their weapons over fears burglaries could see them fall into criminal hands.

In a review of licensed gun holders across the north-west carried out by the force, it was found 200 guns had been stolen in the past three years.

The full story is here : https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/li ... d-26628220

Perhaps the BASC will challenge the 200 stolen gun figures.....................................or not !

200 guns stolen in the last 3 years seems like a lot, but the area ‘The North West’ isn’t defined in the article and could include Greater Manchester, Cheshire, the Lake District etc as well as Merseyside which in itself is quite a small area. Be good to understand this quantity on a force by force basis and also how the guns were stolen - burglary, theft from car, robbery etc.

[1066]

Would certainly be interesting to see the breakdown of the numbers. Going on past history the 200 guns will probably include air/airsoft/replica, blank firer, component parts, moderators, humane killers, shotguns etc.

How many were Sec1 firearms stolen from an FAC holders home address.?

[Dark Skies]

I'm very sceptical of the figures given by Merseyside. Here are the government figures. When you take the shotguns and moderators out of the figures and look at actual firearms stolen, the figure for the entire UK is 57 !

"In the year ending 31 March 2022, 439 firearms and shotguns were reported as lost or stolen, of which 165 were lost and 274 were stolen. This equates to 0.02% of the weapons held on certificates over the same period. In the previous year, 365 firearms and shotguns were reported as lost or stolen, of which 126 were lost and 239 were stolen (equating to 0.02% of weapons held on certificates in that year).

The 165 lost firearms and shotguns included shotguns (118), rifles (19) and sound moderators (19). The 274 stolen firearms and shotguns included shotguns (217) and rifles (33)."

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... march-2022

[1066]

I would think a fair proportion of the shotguns stollen were because of their value, not because they were about to have their barrels chopped off.

[Dark Skies]

I would think a fair proportion of the shotguns stollen were because of their value, not because they were about to have their barrels chopped off.

To be honest, I'd hazard it's because they're the sort of thing people may leave carelessly nickable in a Land Rover whilst going about their work or perhaps in-between shooting, or propped up against a wall in a farmhouse. Unless they're really high value to a collector who doesn't mind not being able to use them in public view or to sell on legitimately.
https://youtu.be/CnqjgB9zfRg?t=115
Didn't sawn-offs go out with Post Office / bank raids / wages snatches?