How to make sure your 'new' gun is indeed new ?

[TonyL]

In that case an item should clearly be treated as second hand, and if a shop tried to pass it off as new then I would imagine it would fall under the Misrepresentation Act 1967, and possibly others.

Yes.

Firstly one would hope that any faults have been corrected and the shop isn't just trying to sell the gun on again knowing that faults exist.

Secondly, they should be marketing this as a "nearly-new, hardly used gun" as opposed to new.

As said up above, there may be issues when the next owner tries to register the warranty.

How does vat work on used guns? Are they sold + vat, like new, or does vat not apply to the selling price but the dealer pays vat on the margin (as is the case with used motorbikes & cars)?