British gun amnesty

Looks like a fair number of firearms have been turned in during the latest gun amnesty program in the UK; the BBC is reporting a total of some 17,000 weapons in all. Yet while the results are presented as a triumph against crime, I wonder how many of the guns collected are being turned in by violent criminals. In fact, it would seem from the total number of guns turned in over the years that Britain has hardly been gun-free, despite the arguments of those who condemn America as gun-ridden.

One thing that is reassuring is that there appears to be some organized effort to check that nothing of historical import gets destroyed. In the words of a Welsh constable, as reported by the BBC:

"We have a strict set of guidelines given to us from the National Museum Consortium about the weapons. After the amnesty, someone will come down to inspect them to see if there is anything of interest that could be considered national heritage". . .

Not a trivial concern; there is a fine pair of ivory-stocked flintlocks in the Metropolitan Museum that once belonged to Catherine the Great. They were stolen from a private collector in the 1960s and were recovered not long after by the NY police. Though the theft report was on file and the guns were obviously "different", they ended up stuck in an evidence locker for years. The only reason they weren't destroyed after the usual passage of time was sheer luck: one cop noticed they looked unusual, and mentioned them to a former cop he know who was working security at the Met.

"One of the most unusual things to come in was a box of antique guns," said Pc Brown. "Some of the handguns in the box were still wrapped in their original cloths and are very well looked after. One has even got the seal of King George on it."

Interesting, but it makes me uneasy to think that antigun hysteria should end up scaring ordinary citizens into giving to the government what are likely quite valuable items. It also raises the question of how many of the total collected are actually usable weapons, as opposed to antiques, dummy guns (which the Brits are also trying to get off the streets), or old rusty shotguns and .22 rifles so dilapidated as to be less than functional. Here in the USA I've known several antique dealer and gun collectors who took advantage of gun buyback programs to get rid of junk guns at far more than their market price, and I recall a buyback out in LA some years ago where the overly generous funds for loosely defined "assault weapons" were soon exhausted by those who bought new surplus SKS rifles and promptly turned them in for a healthy profit.

I also see that one of the big scores of the latest UK amnesty was an AK47. But once you look past the headlines, it turns out it was deactivated. The police made the best of it, though, stating:

"Although this weapon cannot be fired, it still resembles a real, live AK47. If this weapon got into the hands of criminals, it could cause a great deal of fear and alarm."

Then there's the home-made cannon turned in in Birmingham.

UPDATE: More now here.

Posted by David on April 29, 2003 11:31 PM