F. Illegal Firearms
Recent
events involving the criminal use of firearms have resulted all
too often in fatalities that have served to fuel public alarm
over an increase in violent crime. Any series of shootings, including
those witnessed over the past 12 months in the UK, demonstrate
that criminal elements are quite prepared to use extreme violence.
In many instances, their intended victims have been individuals
from rival criminal groups. Others have been entirely innocent
of any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, since the majority of these attacks
are carried out in the street and at night-clubs, the potential
for the law-abiding public to be innocently caught up is enormous.
The
Government attaches great importance to tackling the question
of illegally held firearms and, whilst this issue may lie beyond
the terms of the HAC inquiry, it may be helpful to comment on
various aspects of it.
ILLEGAL FIREARMS
AND THEIR
USE—WHAT
SIGNIFICANCE?
Criminals in the
UK appear to use a range of different firearms gathered from a
variety of different sources. Some of these may be non-working
or blank-firing imitations. Others may be illegally imported arms
smuggled in from abroad; converted or re-activated weapons; guns
brought back by returning soldiers from conflict zones over the
years; guns stolen from legitimate owners; even old guns dating
from before controls were introduced in the 1920s (or 1960s in
the case of shotguns).
Regardless of the variety of methods used
by criminals to obtain illegal firearms, it is necessary to maintain
a proper perspective on this problem. Based on the incidence of
the criminal use of firearms, the Government firmly believes that
controls on legally held firearms do have a positive effect on
the number of guns in criminal hands, by preventing theft and
other illegal diversions of weapons to the illegal market. The
evidence now available leads the Government to reject the idea
that a large number of guns are "flooding" into the
UK from abroad, and rendering our controls ineffectual. The Police
Service and HM Customs have no evidence of organised and large-scale
smuggling of firearms into the UK, either through seizures made
by HM Customs, or by the appearance of a large number of such
guns in crime. It should be noted in this regard that both random
and intelligence-led searches by HM Customs recover considerable
quantities of controlled drugs, pornographic material and other
illegal material every year, of which firearms represent a consistently
low proportion.
When viewed in the context of all UK crime, it
is also evident that overall the criminal use of firearms involves
only a very small number of offences. But, because these involve
physical violence against the person, often with fatal consequences,
they can create public fear. Nevertheless, despite there being
only a limited number of incidents, this does not lessen the Home
Office resolve to support the Police Service in its endeavours
to tackle illegal firearms and help to reduce the fear of gun
related crime.
Perhaps when viewed in the more global context,
particularly in the light of recent events in the USA, the UK
should welcome its absence of a gun culture. Toughened legislation
on firearm ownership, which followed in the wake of the Hungerford
and Dunblane tragedies, has served to promote greater public safety
by restricting legitimate access to firearms. The resultant legislation
was never intended to impact directly on the criminal use of illegal
firearms. Its focus had rightly been on preventing a repetition
of the awful events that arose from the criminal use of legally
held firearms. Other countries that repeatedly have to come to
terms with similar tragic events might benefit from our example.
It
can be argued that the toughened legislation has had an indirect
and beneficial impact on the availability of illegal firearms.
Evidence from the Police Service and Forensic Science Service
shows that handguns, particularly the self-loading pistol, have
become the preferred weapon amongst criminals in recent years.
Yet the fact there is no longer a market in the UK, outside the
Police Service and Military, for handguns has restricted the potential
for these weapons and their ammunition to be siphoned off from
legally held stocks. This has indirectly served to disrupt the
activities of those few disreputable registered firearm dealers
who, up until the ban, chose to supply the criminal market.
CASE STUDY:
FIREARMS HOMICIDES
IN LONDON
The
Home Office has undertaken a review of recent events in London
to provide a context for the issue on illegal firearms. Since
1 January this year, London has experienced a series of shooting
incidents, many of which are believed to be connected, and almost
half of which have resulted in fatalities. Many of these incidents
appear to be related to internecine rivalry between drug gangs
involving a limited number of individuals well known to the police.
This
level of violence needs to be looked at in its historical context.
Whilst it is difficult to establish statistically significant
trends given the low numbers involved, it is important to recognise
that we are not experiencing a sudden increase in firearm offences.
Overall firearm related fatalities remains almost constant. Other
firearms-related offences show a downward trend, e.g. robberies
in which a firearm was reported to have been used have shown the
most dramatic decline since 1993.
Firearm homicides for London 1989 to 1999
| Year
| Number of |
| 1989 | 15
|
| 1990 | 23
|
| 1991 | 13
|
| 1992 | 19
|
| 1993 | 28
|
| 1994 | 17
|
| 1995 | 21
|
| 1996 | 12
|
| 1997 | 25
|
| 1998 | 9
|
| 1999 (to date) | 21
|
| Total | 188 (annual average: 19)
|
Source: Metropolitan Police Service
To
demonstrate this further, firearms related crime still accounts
for less than 0.3 per cent of all notifiable offences recorded
by the police. In many of these cases no firearm had been used
or even seen, just a threat made. So far this year, of the 14,500
emergency calls Londoners made to the Metropolitan Police Service
to report firearm incidents, 45 per cent were found to be unsubstantiated
or hoax calls. Much of the remainder involved the misuse of air
weapons.
The Home Office acknowledges that statistical analysis
on the criminal use of firearms has traditionally focused on the
types of crime and the categories of weapon used. Together with
ACPO, the Home Office recognises that more needs to be done to
gather meaningful data in other important areas. In particular,
further information is required on topics such as:
the number and type of firearms recovered by
Police and Customs;
the degree of repeat usage in shooting incidents;
tracing the origins of these weapons; and
emerging trends as to the types of illegal
firearm being made available and their sources.
It has been widely
acknowledged that the collection and analysis of this type of
data would be of considerable benefit to the Police Service and
HM Customs. Until that time, the Home Office accepts that most
of the analysis will be based more on anecdotal information than
hard evidence.
To overcome the relative lack of information in
this area, the Home Office has relied on important factual information
derived from individual police operations to provide an overview
on criminal trends in the UK. In future, as set out later in this
section, it is anticipated that more will be done to identify
sources of illegal firearms to establish whether there is any
evidence of organised crime moving towards smuggled firearms,
or an increased reliance on re-activated firearms.
In the meantime,
it has been of little benefit to speculate on how many illegal
firearms are in circulation. Suggestions that there are in the
region of 1.0 million illegally held firearms in the UK are baseless.
Greater benefit can be drawn from focusing on what is known about
the criminal market for illegal firearms.
The Home Office can provide
some detail on the type and number of illegal firearms being used
by criminals. For these purposes, information has been drawnfrom
investigations into shooting incidents and details of firearm
seizures made by the Metropolitan Police Service and HM Customs.
For
example, of the firearms involved in the recent series of London
shootings, some 30 per cent have been firearms which had been
made inoperable through a process of de-activation but had subsequently
been restored illegally to working order. Of the 1,780 "firearms"
submitted to the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in London over
the past 15 months, only 40 per cent (712) were controlled firearms
of which 21 were reactivated weapons. Annually around 500 controlled
firearms are submitted to the FSS London Laboratory and the pronounced
trend, as noted earlier, is towards a greater proportion of handguns
than the previously preferred sawn-off shotgun.
Work to trace the
provenance of the illegal firearms seized is still under way.
Initial assessment, though, clearly points to the vast majority
being diverted from the legal market. This is particularly evident
in relation to handguns. The analysis is based on information
from a range of sources:
HM Customs reports that there has been scant
evidence of firearms smuggling;
manufacturers' records show that the weapons
were legally imported or made in the UK, with no evidence of subsequent
export;
reports from legitimate owners and the police
show that only minimal numbers of firearms have been reported
stolen; and
the Police Service notes that the removal of
serial numbers, which occurs in about 20 per cent of cases, is
a clear indication of diversion from the legal market (obliterating
markings is recognised as a method by which criminals can defeat
attempts to identify the source).
If true, then possible solutions
might include better supervision of the licensing and administration
of the gun trade, and better and more uniform~training of Firearms
Enquiry Units operated by the police. Effective gun control requires
enforcement activities that focus on intelligence gathering as
much as on administrative procedures. Police involved in the licensing
and administration of the firearms trade are the appointed guardians
and gatekeepers. Together with the shooting community, they have
and recognise a responsibility for ensuring public safety.
OTHER TRENDS
The
practice of criminals who re-activate de-activated firearms is
a major concern to the Police Service. Since 1995, operations
involving the National Crime Squad, Metropolitan Police Service
and Cleveland Police have recovered in the region of 750 de-activated
submachine guns that had either been re-activated to fire live
ammunition, or had been stockpiled with that intention. In virtually
every case since 1995 where a shooting incident has involved an
automatic weapon on the UK mainland, subsequent investigations
have attributed these to re-activated firearms, in particular
the 9mm Uzi or MAC 10.
Significantly, this is now largely a problem
"imported" from aboard. There is, in fact, no evidence
to suggest that criminals in the UK are able to re-activate weapons
de-activated to the latest (1995) standards. However, there is
no legal requirement for owners in most jurisdictions to register
a firearm once it is deactivated. Similarly, no obligation exists
to notify authorities of the domestic trade in deactivated firearms
or the export of such "weapons". This provides criminals
with the opportunity to traffic in de-activated firearms unchecked,
and to exploit differing standards of de-activation where they
might exist in different jurisdictions.
The fact that the use of
such weapons arises from incidents related to organised crime
demonstrates that the UK is not awash with what may be termed
"conventional" illegal firearms. Organised crime's reliance
on re-activated firearms, rather than the type of conventional
weaponry that is widely available across Europe, reveals that
this country's most serious criminals do not consider smuggling
to be a viable source of guns. HM Customs figures for 1998 record
that less than 150 firearms were seized while being smuggled into
the country. To illustrate this point further, it is worth noting
that some of the UK's leading organised crime figures have been
successfully prosecuted for possession of firearms that were re-activations
or conversions—not conventional weapons.
Traditionally, the
mainland UK illegal firearms market has been sustained by a limited
number of dishonest registered firearms dealers who have been
prepared to divert handguns to criminal elements. For example,
in 1997, a joint operation between the National Crime Squad and
the Metropolitan Police Service resulted in the conviction this
year of a Brighton based firearms dealer. He had been responsible
for illicitly manufacturing sub-machine guns from de-activated
weapons, and diverting handguns with ammunition and silencers
to the criminal market.
The existence of individuals like this
authorised dealer, operating cottage industries illicitly manufacturing
firearms through the re-activation of de-activated weapons, would
suggest that there must be a reasonable market for their guns
and that conventional alternatives are just not available.
There
would also appear to be an illegal market for converted firearms
and the Police Service have seen a number of variations on this
theme. In particular, 8mm blank firing pistols, modelled on the
Beretta 92 manufactured by Valtro and legally available in the
UK, have been readily converted to fire live 8mm ammunition. Police
recovered twelve examples of this weapon that functioned with
the same lethal potential as the conventional Beretta.
A recent
innovation has been the conversion of low powered air pistols
to fire live ammunition. This relates to the legally available
.22 calibre revolvers manufactured by Brocock and involves converting
the "Air Cartridge System" to chamber live ammunition.
The "air cartridges" can easily be replaced with a similar
shaped metal insert that allows a live .22 or .25 calibre bullet
to be chambered in the cylinder and then fired with lethal force.
These
examples further reinforce the Home Office view that the UK does
not have surplus stocks of illegal conventional firearms waiting
to be used by criminals.
This reliance on alternative sources of
illegal firearms can be directly attributed to the changes in
UK firearms legislation. The 1997 Firearms Amendment Act brought
about a ban on handguns. Consequently, the traditional source
for these weapons from a leaking legitimate market dried up.
This
is further evidenced by an increase in the use of reload ammunition
amongst criminals. This is also attributed to another beneficial
consequence of the handgun ban. Much of the handgun calibre ammunition
made available to criminals in the past is now known to have come
from certain poorly supervised pistol shooting clubs.
CURRENT POLICY
INITIATIVES
1. Enhanced Data Collection
Much
of the preceding analysis points to the need for greater and more
varied forms of information about the criminal use of firearms.
The Home Office is currently considering ways to enhance the collection
and analysis of firearms data already required under Section 39
of the Firearms Amendment Act 1997. It is also working closely
with the Police Service in examining ways to improve other forms
of information exchange and criminal intelligence on this subject.
One particular focus of such an enhanced data collection capability
could be to automate the process involved in the handling of notifications
which authorities now receive of all firearm and ammunition transactions
within the legitimate trade. This would greatly simplify and speed
a process that traditionally has been done manually on paper.
Computerisation would help to speed the identification of potentially
suspicious activity that could be a precursor to illegal diversion.
The focus would be on prevention to close a loophole that previously
has been exploited criminally.
2. UN Firearms Protocol
Last
January, the Home Office participated in the first round of negotiations
sponsored by the UN Crime Commission in Vienna to agree a Protocol
Against the Illicit Manufacture and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition
and Related Material. The Protocol is part of on~going efforts
to tackle transnational organised crime. When concluded, sometime
late in autumn 2000, its importance will be to signal to jurisdictions
around the world the resolve of signatories to eliminate the criminal
use of firearms through better co-operation and the development
of improved standards and practices in areas such as firearms
marking; import, export and transit regulations; and firearms
de-activation.
The Protocol's particular relevance to the UK will
be to recognise and deal with those aspects of problems associated
with the criminal use of firearms in which the efforts of domestic
law enforcement have been complicated by the international dimensions
of the criminal activity in question. As such, it is expected
to complement the initiatives described elsewhere in this memorandum
and foster a greater awareness of the issues associated with the
criminal use of firearms more generally.
The European Union authorities
are also in the process of reviewing the EU Weapons Directive
which provides for minimum standards for firearms controls in
EU member states and co-ordinated arrangements for the transport
of firearms between member states. The UK Government is playing
an active role in this review.
3. Improved Police Response
The
establishment of the National Crime Squad and the National Criminal
Intelligence Service has allowed greater opportunity to focus
the efforts of law enforcement on tackling illegal firearms. Their
creation should not be underestimated as a positive factor in
the ability of the Police to tackle incidents involving the criminal
use of firearms.
The Police Service is also actively working with
the gun trade to identify individuals who potentially are engaged
in the illicit manufacture of ammunition by monitoring the market
in component parts, most of which is not subject to any controls.
4. Other Areas
Where other
areas of weakness have been identified, the Government has sought
to check these. For example, HM Customs and military authorities
take particular care to ensure that firearms are not brought back
by soldiers returning from zones of conflict as unauthorised "trophies
of war", due to the risk of these firearms eventually falling
into the hands of criminals.
The Government has also asked the
Firearms Consultative Committee (FCC) to look at the criminal
misuse of firearms as part of its work programme for the current
year. There may be measures that can assist both the police and
legitimate gun owners in preventing firearms from falling into
criminal hands.
CONCLUSION
The Home
Office is firmly committed to reducing the availability of illegal
firearms to criminal elements and will continue to develop a broad
range of national and international measures aimed at supporting
law enforcement agencies in their fight against organised crime.
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