Plans to ban deactivated guns welcomed by ACPO

ACPO has welcomed the Home Secretary’s plans to ban deactivated guns this year.

Jacqui Smith made the announcement on a visit to the Liverpool suburb where schoolboy Rhys Jones was murdered.

The Home Secretary said she wanted to protect the public and allow police to remove black market firearms from the streets.

Deactivated guns are not capable of firing live ammunition, but criminals often alter them for re-use.

Ms Smith met the parents of 11-year-old Rhys, who was shot dead on August 22 while returning home.

Ms Smith said: “I want to balance protecting the public with the rights of responsible collectors of deactivated firearms.”

Sue Fish, new ACPO lead on firearms and Temporary Deputy Chief Constable for Nottinghamshire, said: “Deactivated guns account for around 10 per cent of all criminally-used firearms submitted to the Forensic Science Service and ACPO welcomes these proposals to outlaw them.

“Gun crime is, thankfully, a rare occurrence in this country but its impacts are devastating and we are determined to drive it down further.

“The implementation of the Common Minimum Standard for Deactivation in 1995 has made ‘reactivation’ substantially more difficult. However, ‘old specification’ deactivated firearms have moving parts, are freely bought and sold and instructions on how to reactivate them can be easily found on the Internet.

“Although the 1995 standard prevents recently deactivated firearms from being reactivated, they are exempt from the ban on realistic imitation firearms introduced under the Violent Crime Reduction Act of 2006. As a result these guns are still used as ‘imitation weapons’ to threaten and install fear in the public.”