Reply With QuoteThey were banned because two young girls in Birmingham were shot dead with a Mac 10 machine gun.
A few years ago on a New Years Eve.
Only just convicted some of those involved.
You may wonder what the connection was.
So did I!
Registered User
Hi,
my neighbour brought round a stack of old Airgun World magazines which are making really interesting reading. Oddball rifles seem to turn up on every page, the BSA rifle with alternative calibre barrels made me do a double take as I have never heard of it as do the Italian pistols powered by Brocock cartridges.
This has probably been covered before but why are they now considered FAC material? There is no mention of their power output and alas at the time of all this I was not in the UK to witness what went on....
If anyone could solve this mystery I would be grateful
Registered User
They were banned because two young girls in Birmingham were shot dead with a Mac 10 machine gun.
A few years ago on a New Years Eve.
Only just convicted some of those involved.
You may wonder what the connection was.
So did I!
Registered User
As above!
It was a predictable and typical piece of New Labour political window dressing!
Dialling code: 01344
Self contained air cartridge guns were effectively prohibited because they were readily convertible to fire S1 pistol cartridges, particularly .22rf. I believe that owners at the time were offered the option to hold them on FAC, but sale or transfer to new owners was prohibited, thus avoiding compensation payments but effectively killing the market. Wonder how many were neither declared nor surrendered?
True freedom includes the freedom to make mistakes or do foolish things and bear the consequences.
TANSTAAFL
may also be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocation dingle arm, to reduce sinusoidal repleneration
AFAIK the Weihrauch/Arminus centrefire revolvers that Saxby-Palmer and then Brocock used as the basis for their airguns could, with access to a good machine shop, be converted to fire live ammunition. I noticed this when I got a Saxby-Palmer and traded it in for a big batch of pellets well before they thought of the ban, I thought 'it's only a matter of time'. The pistols were centrefire revolvers with cast cylinders - conversion to .22 Long Rifle would take a cylinder insert and a firing pin mod, conversion to .38 or .32 would need a new cylinder and boring out the barrel, no rifling but the criminals aren't target shooters. I don't think there were many or any crimes committed with a converted air-cartridge pistol, other than carrying them, but the potential was there.
THB the air-cartridge setup was a massive pain in the harris, the modern ,177/6mm CO2 pistols are far better.
Registered User
Whatever the reasons for their demise they were around for a long time before the then government turned it's legislative gaze on them.
Estimates at the time were somewhere in the region of 90,000 or so in circulation.About 5,000 licenses were applied for to keep them and some were handed in.
The vast majority, though are still out there unaccounted for and guess what! The sky has not fallen in, thus making a mockery of the piece of iniquitous legislation governing them!
may also be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocation dingle arm, to reduce sinusoidal repleneration
I think the same thing happened when the high-capacity semi-auto and pump shotgun ban came in with 1988. Probably thousands of them sitting in cupboards and attics, somewhat more lethal than some air-cartridge pistols with a wobbly potential for becoming Saturday Night Specials.Originally Posted by mrto
Registered User
Thanks for the replies....I missed all this but I suppose that I could have guessed it was a Labour PR stunt. So they were banned but was there ever a crime committed by making them able to fire .22?
Labour especially are anti anything related to hunting or fishing it seems or are they all as bad as each other?
Registered User
Not that I recall.
i think they looked too real for the Police to be happy with them.
That was in the days when Airsoft wasn't much seen!
Dodgy Diana User
The police at the time said very clearly that they were coming across quite a few of them in the hands of the lesser sort of urban gang member, and I don't disbelieve them.
IIRC, there was at least one murder committed with a converted TAC revolver, in Bradford in around 2002.
Anyone who has owned or examined one closely and knows a bit about real guns can see that most of them would not be too hard to turn into a crude powder-burner if you knew what you were doing.
Dialling code: 01344
The act of conversion alone is a crime, and there were a number seized by police, so yes.
True freedom includes the freedom to make mistakes or do foolish things and bear the consequences.
TANSTAAFL
Registered User
I suppose the ban was inevitable them...
Registered User
Only in the UK ,they are still perfectly legal to own in many European countries!
Outstanding Long Member
They were intentionally made to be too weak to withstand 'proper' combustion loads and were often sold in toyshops.
Their demise was typical kneejerk reaction legislation. We must be seen to do something NOW!
Or that's the way I see it, Mick
When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns .
The Chrono Slayer
I was offered one of the 1,500 converted Lee Enfields at a carboot sale a few years ago, I told the bloke they were illegal to own without an FAC and that the date for acquiring one had passed years ago!
He was adamant that he could own it as he bought it new before the implementation of the laws!!
I did tell him that even if he had acquired the cert for it, It was still illegal to actually sell it! He was having none of it!!, Never saw him again so he may have been caught and locked up!!
Must say though, It was a beautiful piece
John
for my gunz guitarz and bonzai, see here
www.flickr.com/photos/8163995@N07/
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