Oh Sh**

[milldog]

So today starts like every day i get my son ready for school and zip around to my mate's to collect his son, however they are not ready so we go inside to wait.

on the wall he has Two decommisioned AK47's (assult rifles), on looking at these i asked the question, can i have a look? this was followed by

"did you know that you can swap the bits over and make this a working rifle"

Oh S... so the question now is what does he do now!!

however i think the law is changing on decommed guns and he wont be able to have them anyway, so should he wait for the law to change and just hand them over

Graham

[Sean]

I think you better get him to check with the police if it legal to have these in his house, we brought some back from the first Gulf war, these were on display in the Sgt’s mess. One person decided to display one (fully decommissioned in Warminster) at his house. One of his son’s mates told his dad and so on, he ended getting raided by the police and got in all sorts of trouble with the police and the Army,

[Richard Mason]

If it's illegal and the cops don't know about it and there's no amnesty, a couple of passes with an angle grinder and quietly depositing it out at sea well away from any diveable wrecks next time you have the boat to yourself should do the trick. I wouldn't be inclined to tell them, he'll just end up on their redneck watchlist.

I know one bloke in Manchester who got rid of a "hot" weapon by putting it inside a carwreck going to the crushing yard; nothing survives the blast furnace.

[IanD]

This is a section from the Violent Crime Reduction bill wich came into force
1st Oct 07


Manufacture, import and sale of realistic imitation firearms


(1) A person is guilty of an offence if—


(a) he manufactures a realistic imitation firearm;


(b) he modifies a firearm or an imitation firearm so that it becomes a
realistic imitation firearm;

(c) he sells a realistic imitation firearm; or

(d) he brings a realistic imitation firearm into Great Britain or causes one to
be brought into Great Britain.

[GLOC]

Graham,

Is that like walking up to a girl and saying 'My mate fancies you...' when in fact it is a ruse to guage opinion of the girl to yourself . How did you come by the AK's?

[liamm]

I dont really understand why people have things like this, let alone displayed on their wall. Essentially a pretend gun.

[stevechesh]

Milldog, lets hide them on the Unknown sailing ship. That'll confuse everyone even more!

[Mal Bridgeman]

Originally Posted by liamm

I dont really understand why people have things like this, let alone displayed on their wall. Essentially a pretend gun.

They are for really grown up people to play "Cowboys and Indians" with....have you not seem them marching round the streets in a Primary-School-Stylee shouting "Who wants to play, Cowboys and Indians?"

[machiavelli]

I'm not sure discussing this here is a good idea.

If it can be trivially reactivated then it need to be secured and properly deativated/destroyed before it falls into the hands of those it shouldn't.

The angle grinder and burial at sea option does sound more atractive than involving the police though.

[Capt. Stable]

Encourage him to hand it in to the police - I dont think there are any incriminations for doing so, but best to check first!

We often get calls of people trying to donate live (WW2) hand grenades and munitions to the archive - the reply is allways (after ensuring they dont accidentally blow themselves up) is hand them over to the police (aside from live explosives - a team will usually be called around to ensure the item is safe, then dispose of it.)

Old fire arms and munitions are usually full of nasty chemicals which will last a lot longer than the weapons themselves, so best not to hang on to them.
Speaking from experience, an explosive with a hand written note 'Made Safe' does not fill you with confidence, let the proffesionals deal with it!