Firearms and Gun Crimes- definitions Flashcards
Q: What does a ‘firearm’ mean?
S57 Firearms Act 1968 as amended by the Policing and Crime Act 2017
S57(1) ‘firearm’ means
(a) A lethal barrelled weapon
(b) A prohibited weapon
(c) A relevant component part in relation to a lethal barrelled weapon or a prohibited weapon
(d) An accessory to a lethal barrelled weapon or a prohibited weapon where the accessory is designed or adapted to diminish the noise or flash caused by firing the weapon
Q: What is a ‘lethal barrelled weapon’?
S57(1B)
In subsection (1)(a), “lethal barrelled weapon” means a barrelled weapon of any description from which a shot, bullet or other missile, with kinetic energy of more than one joule at the muzzle of the weapon, can be discharged.
Lethal barrelled weapons are therefore firearms.
Q: Given the above, what does ‘lethal’ mean?
That it is capable of causing injury from which death might result- has the potential to kill.
Q: What if an item can only discharge a missile if paired with other items to assist it?
An item which can only discharge a missile in combination with other tools extraneous to it, would not qualify as a lethal barrelled weapon.
This is because case law tells us that where s57 says a ‘lethal barrelled weapon from which any shot, bullet or missile can be discharged’ it is referring to the capacity of that particular weapon as it currently is to discharge a missile and not for its potential capacity in combination with other items.
Buley case- old, damaged starting pistol originally designed to fire blank cartridges but which now had a partially drilled barrel was not regarded as a firearm. The weapon could only be discharged through an elaborate technique by an expert using additional items to assist him.
Q: Are air pistols and imitation revolvers firearms?
Air pistols and imitation revolvers that can discharge missiles have been held to be lethal barrelled weapons, as has a signalling pistol.
The weapon therefore does not have to have been designed by its manufacturer for the purpose of killing- it just has to be capable of doing so.
Q: What are prohibited weapons under s57(1)(b)?
Prohibited weapons are firearms- whether they are lethal barrelled or not. This means all prohibited weapons are firearms, although not all firearms will be prohibited weapons.
Case law says that filling something up with a noxious solution does not count as ‘adapting’ under s57(1)(d). to adapt something, you have to change the nature of the thing itself not just fill it up.
Formosa case- Filled a milk bottle up with acid to squirt at wasps nests- held not to be a prohibited weapon.
Q: What is a ‘relevant component part’ under s57(1)(c)?
S57(1D)
For the purposes of subsection (1)(c), each of the following items is a relevant component part in relation to a lethal barrelled weapon or a prohibited weapon—
(a) a barrel, chamber or cylinder,
(b) a frame, body or receiver,
(c) a breech block, bolt or other mechanism for containing the pressure of discharge at the rear of a chamber,
but only where the item is capable of being used as a part of a lethal barrelled weapon or a prohibited weapon.
Relevant component parts are also firearms.
Q: What are ‘accessories’ under s57(1)(d)?
To be a firearm, a silencer (and presumably a flash eliminator and other accessories) needs to have been manufactured for a weapon that is in D’s possession or be capable of being used on a weapon in D’s possession and he had it for that purpose.
Buckfield 1998- whether a silencer is a firearm is a question of fact which should be answered by considering whether the silencer could be used with a firearm in D’s position and whether D had it for that purpose.
It has to be shown that the silencer is an accessory to a lethal barrelled weapon or prohibited weapon. It is not enough to find a silencer on its own.
Q: Are telescopic sites and magazines firearms?
They are accessories but are not firearms.
Q: What are ‘airsoft guns’?
Policing and Crime Act introduced airsoft guns.
Airsoft- paintball and similar activities.
S57A states that an airsoft gun is not to be regarded as a firearm for the purposes of the Act if it falls within the definition of an airsoft gun.
‘A barrelled weapon of any description which is designed to discharge only a small spherical plastic missile, no greater than 8mm in diameter, whether or not it is also capable of discharging any other type of missile and which is not capable of discharging a missile of any kind with kinetic energy at the mussel that exceeds the permitted level’.
The permitted kinetic energy level for a single shot weapon is 2.5 joules and for automatic repeat shot weapons its 1.3 joules.
Q: When does a firearm cease to be a firearm?
When it is deactivated. That means formally deactivated and certified as such by one of the two companies authorised to do so (Birmingham Proof House and Society of the Mystery of Gun Makers in the City of London).
A proper deactivated firearm must remain in its complete state to continue to qualify as deactivated and fall outside the legislation.
Q: What if someone disassembles a firearm themselves?
Ashton case- where a deactivated weapon is disassembled, the individual parts are capable of being reassembled into a working weapon and are therefore now component parts of a firearm.
Q: What is ‘ammunition’?
Defined by s57(2)- ‘the expression “ammunition” means ammunition for any firearm and includes grenades, bombs and other like missiles, whether capable of use with a firearm or not, and also includes prohibited ammunition’.
It doesn’t have to be capable of causing injury, a blank cartridge is ammunition.
Q: What is a ‘bomb’?
An explosive substance in a case or a case containing poison gas, smoke or inflammable material that might be dropped from an aircraft, fired from a gun or thrown or placed by hand.
Definition does not include ingredients or components of ammunition, it is only assembled ammunition that is controlled by the act eg: powder is not ammunition on its own.
Q: What is the exception to this rule?
Military grade missiles for ammunition prohibited under s5 of the Act.
Eg: armour piercing bullets.
