[Closed] How easy could you buy a hand gun today?

20 years ago I could have bought one legally.

Not. a . clue.
Although I have a farmer friend who might lend me a shotgun. I doubt he would. (And yes, I know enough to know that isn't a handgun)

Wouldn't even know where to start.

Assume any pub with a flat roof is a good starting point.

It's gone now (handed in) but not so long ago I knew someone who had a WW1 or WW2 revolver and ammo.
I also saw with my own eyes a WW2 grenade in someone's garage. It had been there a long time, the bomb squad were called and it turned out to be deactivated.

Classifieds >>>>

how much are you willing to pay ?

Whilst i am an upstanding pillar of my community now , i grew up on a council estate and suspect with the right money and intentions it wouldnt take long . It being clean or untraceable is another matter - god knows what the flat roof pub Herberts do these days other than drink in the same pub with a flat roof !

Where I grew up in a not very nice area of Leicester, I knew of people who had guns or had access to guns and saw a couple of people carrying guns.

Nowadays, 25 years on, I wouldn't have a clue or the inclination to find out how or where to get hold of one. Which is how I like it.

is this a post where one can act all macho and hard and pretend they knew/know some bad arse folk from down the estate ?

yeah I knew someone that knew some one that knew some one that also knew some one that couldn't get a gun

not really if i wanted to get my willy out to wave i would , i just dont think people in normal society realize that these things are actually not as difficult to obtain as they believe

Just pop over the the US and walk into a local Decathlon and buy whatever you like. Dismantle and stick in hold luggage.

[i]i grew up on a council estate[/i]

So did I. There was some dog shit about, but no guns as far as I know.

If I reeeeeallly needed a gun, I would just buy a 3d printer and fabricate one. Ammo might be a bit tougher but we could work something out.

I have no idea.

My neighbors nephew was inside for armed robbery a while back so I imagine that's where i'd start.

Honestly though, I don't think any of them would sell me anything, they don't know me from Adam and I have an unfamiliar accent.

there are many illegally held handguns in the uk. First off up the 60's Army officers were expected to purchase their own service revolver, so were kept them when the left.
Service men were encouraged to collect trophies in WW1 not so much in WW2 but it certainly went on.
These guns just don't evaporate.
Parts of the EU are awash with guns, (think former soviet)looking at the problems with have with immigration, smuggling a hand gun in to the country would be to hard.
So are they here yes, but can you buy one?

Hmm. Maybe but even then I'd be more likely to get ripped off and probably more likely to get grassed or caught too. Odds of actually getting one, pretty slim, I'd have to be out of my mind to try it. Big difference between maybe and definitely, with something like that.

I could make a rudimentary one, the hardware's simple... but no idea how to do powder. Now I have a terrible urge to find out, but that's not a google search I especially want to do at work 😆 My brother's a pyrotechnician, I guess I could adapt something. Odds of exploding self: high.

Pretty sure I could lay hands on a shotgun, not entirely sure there'd be shells with it. Or, I know where there's a man-portable trebuchet.

Don't think it would be too hard here: https://www.a-alvarez.com/caza/armas_cortas-calibre_9_mm_y_superiores

Although I'm not sure if you need Spanish citizenship to get a gun, in which case I'd just have to persuade my wife we need on. Telling her it's for killing the bloody swifts that crap on my car would probably do it.

If you have the will you have the way.

... you need to have money too ...

Just saw the url. Thread originally cerncerned a "hand-gunterday". I'd have to look it up first.

"Just pop over the the US and walk into a local Decathlon and buy whatever you like. Dismantle and stick in hold luggage."

I know someone who did this with a BB/airsoft gun. WTF!!
It was a licenced reproduction of a Mac9 sub machine gun. So its a all metal, gun coloured, working gun. Except it runs on compressed gas and fires plastic BB's.
It looks like a gun. now you can buy it in the uk, just the same. Its not illegal. But it was cheaper to it buy for about £45 less in the US.
So why not check in for a flight with it in your bag.!!
Looney

Didn't do so well. I found a few Gunter-Days, plenty of Hans-Gunters...

"is this a post where one can act all macho and hard and pretend they knew/know some bad arse folk from down the estate ?"

I'd imagine it would probably be a lot easier to buy one from someone who already held legal firearms, as quite a number have illegal ones that they either have forgotten about or chosen to not declare. Personally, I'd only have to ask around a few middle class friends who have connections with the hunting types, if I really wanted a gun. I've certainly known such types who've held illegal firearms that everyone keeps quiet about.

rail guns

not covered under any uk legislation

stop messing with toy gun

It's a catch-22. To buy a gun, you need to go to a dodgy place to meet dodgy people whilst holding a large amount of cash. The ideal protection mechanism would be to have a gun on you, but for that, you'd need to go to a dodgy place to meet dodgy people whilst holding a lot of cash.

Not a clue.
My best chances are to visit the closed down US WW2/Coldwar airbase in the woods and go digging. They left trucks and other bits to rot. Might be something lurking around. Probably need to get a metal detector.

Used to be a member of a couple of re enactment groups when I was a student, there were a few types who may have been able to source something.

Laws were different then too, my parents used to own and shoot handguns when I was young.

Stealth wanted ad?

rail guns

not covered under any uk legislation

Not going to be troubling "handgun" territory anytime soon...

https://www.engadget.com/2015/10/19/3d-printed-handheld-railgun/

[img] [/img]

I know people who know people so probably .
Getting away with using it would be a different matter, as you've brought to many folk into the loop.
Truthfully though i'd probably just make one , barrel and ammo is no problem and it'd be a single shot one with a moderator , so ok for assasinations 😯 .
i may have thought about this a bit much 😯 😯 😆

A bit like buying drugs, knowing the right person to approach without running the risk of waking up in a derelict building with severe contusions and covered in (your own) blood, and light a significant amount of money and all your personal possessions.
If I really had a need for a firearm, I think I'd be trying somewhere with a pretty lax attitude to security, and historically unstable politically, like various former Soviet client states.
Other than that, I honestly wouldn't have clue one as to where to go.
Certainly an medium-sized market town on the edge of the south Cotswolds isn't exactly a hotbed of gun culture.
A sawn-off shotgun with the stock cut down might be the nearest thing around here. 😀

It's gone now (handed in) but not so long ago I knew someone who had a WW1 or WW2 revolver and ammo.

I knew someone who had a .5 Browning and ammo. He used to dig up WWII aircraft and had recovered it still intact. As a kid he gave me a 20mm canon shell from a Spitfire and a couple of 7.62 rounds from a Stuka. I still have the canon shell but the bullets must have gone missing in a house move.

I'd go to us, buy one, then dismantle and post back in bits to a hard to trace address.

Similar approach to buying a new santa cruz bike to be fair...

7.92 in the Stuka 🙂

Bruges.

I was thinking this

7.92 in the Stuka

Truthfully though i'd probably just make one , barrel and ammo is no problem and it'd be a single shot one with a moderator , so ok for assasinations .
i may have thought about this a bit much

I once worked with a chap who is now serving life for carrying out a drugs related contract killing.

I actually make an effort to not move in those circles.

I'd imagine for people in those circles, very easy. If I personally wanted one, I imagine they wouldn't give me the time of day. (or I'd be set up and end up with an empty wallet, a good kicking and no hand gun).

If you know where to look you can buy them mail order from the darker parts of the internet. Everything from hand guns ($500) up to Barrett 50 cal's ($6500) and the like. Handguns are shipped inside power tools, larger guns stripped and shipped inside computer cases. You can even get them locally shipped from within the UK if you are worried about it being stopped by customs.

I know a few guys who have one, but they're not the kind of people who'd be nice enough to lend it to me. So the answer to the OP is, "Not very easily".

Don't think it would be too hard here: https://www.a-alvarez.com/caza/armas_cortas-calibre_9_mm_y_superiores

I see those handguns are under "Hunting" in that shop. Serious question, is there anything you'd legitimately hunt with a 9mm pistol?

You can still buy and hold black powder pistols (I think - you can certainly hold them) so something like a navy colt replica would be possible - but very difficult

Not really, the only legitimate use for a handgun when hunting is for bear defence - and you wouldn't use a 9mm for that - something like a .44 mag revolver.

There aren't many grizzly bears in Spain 😛

A buddy of mine is in a gun club. He's got a couple of semi-auto rifles and a pump action shotgun and often discusses buying handguns. Apparently the guys down at his club have all sorts of hand gun exotica.

Not really, the only legitimate use for a handgun when hunting is for bear defence - and you wouldn't use a 9mm for that - something like a .44 mag revolver.

You use a pistol for animal dispatch as well which is where a large caliber revolver comes in to play.

I know a few who have pistols for animal dispatch but I doubt they would be willing to lose their livelihood to lend it me.

I've grown up in a rough area and still live close too it and while guns are knocking around and there have been shootings getting hold of one for someone outside of the gangs would be pretty hard to do.

Modern handgun? No idea.
Deactivated historical weapons very easily as I still know a lot of folks who re-enact various periods of history.
I can quite easily get my hands on an entire battery of working cannon though!

Used to be able to get ammo from a nearby military ammunition store.

It was all fenced off etc, but there was an amnesty box near the front gate for folk to drop off any illegally held ammunition, explosives etc. Just turn up when nobody was around (most of the time) and have a rummage in the box for anything interesting 😯

They probably figured what was happening and the box has gone now 🙁

I don't think it'll ever be 'easy' in the UK, you can buy all manner of illegal drugs with relative ease these days, I'm told in London dealers hand out business cards and will deliver.

I do actually know someone who owned an illegal handgun in the past and possibly still has it buried somewhere, although I don't know him well enough to ask to 'lend' it, he was joking with another guy about having to drive to the north of England to buy it and a few weeks later the guy who sold it to him phoning him up to ask if he wanted to buy an Uzi. I guess this would have been about 2003, so I hope for everyone's sake he's thrown it in the sea by now.

Other than that it wouldn't be too hard to drive into mainland Europe and find someone who'd sell you one, I'd probably try Bulgaria given the amount of blacked-out G Wagons I saw milling about and the obviously armed geezers in them you see away from the tourist bits and cites. Providing you didn't get murdered trying to buy one most of the borders between countries are open until you reach Dover and well, I've been stopped once in 30 years of taking the ferry to France and back.

Or you could make one, I believe it's still possible to buy starter pistols and replica blank firing pistols online, they take a non-standard sized 'round' but it's not too hard to replace the restricted barrel for a bit of plumbers pipe and you make the bullets by cutting the head off the blank and pouring in molten lead (carefully I imagine) - it won't drop a buffalo at 300m but it's a lethal weapon a point blank range.

This thread is a good example why gun control does work - yes some "bad guys" will be able to get their hands on a gun regardless (although unlikely to be a semi-automatic rifle ), but your typical loner whacked out on prescription drugs has very little chance of getting a battery of arms & armour in the uk

Or you could make one, I believe it's still possible to buy starter pistols and replica blank firing pistols online, they take a non-standard sized 'round' but it's not too hard to replace the restricted barrel for a bit of plumbers pipe and you make the bullets by cutting the head off the blank and pouring in molten lead (carefully I imagine) - it won't drop a buffalo at 300m but it's a lethal weapon a point blank range.

That's what the fella had done on 24 hours in police custody the other week and they tested it against some gel and it worked. Fired well enough to seriously injure someone at point blank range.

I'd just 3D print one. Ammo might be more of a challenge.

1: Join gun club

2: Get licensee

3: Go to a hunting/shooting shop

4: Ask "for the good stuff"

[img] [/img]

"You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me".

Have one on me right now*

*Don't live in UK

somouk - Member

Or you could make one, I believe it's still possible to buy starter pistols and replica blank firing pistols online, they take a non-standard sized 'round' but it's not too hard to replace the restricted barrel for a bit of plumbers pipe and you make the bullets by cutting the head off the blank and pouring in molten lead (carefully I imagine) - it won't drop a buffalo at 300m but it's a lethal weapon a point blank range.

That's what the fella had done on 24 hours in police custody the other week and they tested it against some gel and it worked. Fired well enough to seriously injure someone at point blank range.

Yeah that's where I saw it. Horrible peice of work he was, he should have got more than 5 years.

i grew up on a council estate

So did I. There was some dog shit about, but no guns as far as I know.

So did I, I also worked for a firearms dealer. This was back in the day of white dog turds and Elton John was married to Kiki Dee though.

You have to ask why would you want to buy an illegal underground firearm? You have failed as a member of society and risk a fairly long stretch for possession even if it's kept under a mattress.

still possible to buy starter pistols and replica blank firing pistols online, they take a non-standard sized 'round' but it's not too hard to replace the restricted barrel for a bit of plumbers pipe and you make the bullets by cutting the head off the blank and pouring in molten lead (carefully I imagine) - it won't drop a buffalo at 300m but it's a lethal weapon a point blank range.

I've just googled that and am surprised at what you can buy!! 😯

Well, I don't think its any secret that you can walk into a dealer and buy a fully functioning pistol under the s58 antique firearms exemption without a certificate or anything tomorrow, only complexity is that they are
i) bloody expensive
ii)difficult to get ammo for

As P-Jay says though, It would be far easier to go on a road trip holiday to the balkans with a wad of cash and bring back an entire armoury in the back of the car. While If you were really desperate then it would take about half an hour to knock up a slam fire shotgun in your average bike shop workshop.

Yes, you could probably get a handgun if you knew the right people in the right places. But it wouldn't be 'clean' it will almost certainly have a history of 'dirty' use.
There are / were a load of WWI, WWII guns floating around for many years. But as the original holders die off then families are handing them into the Police, sometimes through amnesties just to get rid of them. Keeping granddads old Walther momento in the loft is too much hassle.
We don't actually have much of a culture of gun use in the U.K. and through my experience the actual recurring events in The States and the heavy punishment for possession are increasingly putting the general public off storing them.

footflaps - Member
Just pop over the the US and walk into a local Decathlon and buy whatever you like. Dismantle and stick in hold luggage.

Being that a friend opened his case on his return from a family trip to Disneyland Florida to find a piece of A4 from US customs in it, relating to a small kitchen knife they'd bought out there and brought back in hold luggage I'd have thought not.

Was all locked up too.

I was in Estonia not that long ago at a firing range and they had some for sale in there I think they were Glocks for about €700. Once you have bought it getting it back into the UK would not be too hard as long as you didn't fly or look a bit of the beardy foreign type chap.

the only legitimate use for a handgun when hunting is for bear defence

Also quickly finishing off animals you've wounded.

This thread is a good example why gun control does work - yes some "bad guys" will be able to get their hands on a gun regardless (although unlikely to be a semi-automatic rifle ), but your typical loner whacked out on prescription drugs has very little chance of getting a battery of arms & armour in the uk

Being that a friend opened his case on his return from a family trip to Disneyland Florida to find a piece of A4 from US customs in it, relating to a small kitchen knife they'd bought out there and brought back in hold luggage I'd have thought not.

There was a conviction recently for a guy bringing back handguns in luggage from the US (several at a time), but they only caught him on his nth trip after a tip off....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/05/steven-greenoe-gun-smuggling-trial

Not really, the only legitimate use for a handgun when hunting is for bear defence - and you wouldn't use a 9mm for that - something like a .44 mag revolver.

There aren't many grizzly bears in Spain

There are brown bears, though. I'm assuming the website I linked to just put all the firearms under "hunting" (caza) due to laziness, rather than any other reason. Certainly Spanish hunters afaik use rifles/shotguns, not Glocks 🙂

When I was in my late teens and early twenties, in Manchester at the turn of the 90's I knew lots of people who would claim to be able to get guns, knew people who would know people. Looking back they were bullshitters. The usual claim is that they know the "quality street gang" or know the crew that turned away the Krays at Piccadilly station (an urban myth that I think every major city in the UK has).

In the mid 90's I was working doors around the Manchester area, and that brought me to the periphery of the gang culture and turf wars of the era (and I made mistakes that gave me a criminal record that still affects my life). At that time I could have probably got a gun, but I think that had I taken that path I would have probably just become a sacrificial lamb, a name that could be thrown in to sweeten the deal of core player who got caught.

Apparently, you can rent them pretty reasonably.....it's a lot easier than risking going into one of them there flat roofed jobbies with a bikes worth of cash

My best chances are to visit the closed down US WW2/Coldwar airbase in the woods and go digging. They left trucks and other bits to rot. Might be something lurking around. Probably need to get a metal detector.

Apparently there was an Operation Gladio cache near where I used to live ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Cheddington), so that's where I'd start.

Failing that I'd nip round to see this chap: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/anti-tank-missile-among-largest-ever-uk-weapons-cache-found-by-police-a6884286.html

Being that a friend opened his case on his return from a family trip to Disneyland Florida to find a piece of A4 from US customs in it, relating to a small kitchen knife they'd bought out there and brought back in hold luggage I'd have thought not.

Was all locked up too.

Whenever I go to the US now I never lock my holdall luggage. I don't want to give them any more excuses to damage my kit.

Plenty of 'souvenirs' brought back from the Balkan conflicts and Gulf wars in the hands of ex squaddies. Not sure they'd be too keen to admit it and even less keen to loan out. I'm sure they must be clamping down on it now but it was quite common for a few Tokarevs and the like to be brought out.

Just to level things off

What people would call a pistol E.G the semi auto pistols or revolvers are in the UK now classed as a Section 5 firearms.
They were once Section 1 and you could own them with a section 1 firearms license until the Dunblane school massacre I think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_school_massacre

You can now ONLY own and shoot black powder pistols on a Section 1 firearms certificate. And there shit BTW 🙂

The sentencing for being in possession of a section 5 firearm is 10 years. http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/firearms/#a14

What people would call a pistol E.G the semi auto pistols or revolvers are in the UK now classed as a Section 5 firearms.

Unless they are S7.1, S7.3 or S58 you mean?

Read this with interest. I don't think many of the posters on here move in the right circles; I used to have a colleague who, with his father, collected guns. They were from Liverpool and he was definitely a wide boy; would be constantly buying and selling stuff like boats on the web, getting up and dashing out of the office to meet somebody in a car park. He was certainly breaking company IT rules. He moved in those cash-rich big swinging dick Alpha male circles, the kinds of people who had big old farms at the ends of lanes in Cheshire with lots of Range Rovers parked out the back and a very fast boat at Abersoch. I had no doubt at all that he or his Dad would have been able to sort you out something within 24 hours.

I had no doubt at all that he or his Dad would have been able to sort you out something within 24 hours.

Yeah he sounds a real big player, you convinced me with the IT flaunting.

I live in the US, so alarmingly easily. While buying the weekly shop at the supermarket. You can get smaller ones in pink or blue for the youth.

Actually, as a non-citizen it would be harder, but with a small amount of effort I could still legally get an AR-15 or whatever.

I keep meaning to go on a gun safety/basic training course. I'm not planning to get a gun but knowing the basics seems like a good idea around here.

Tom_W1987 - Member

Not really, the only legitimate use for a handgun when hunting is for bear defence - and you wouldn't use a 9mm for that - something like a .44 mag revolver.

Standard wisdom now is bear spray, I think. Pretty good evidence that shooting a bear during an attack increases your risk of injury.

somouk - Member

You use a pistol for animal dispatch as well which is where a large caliber revolver comes in to play.

I've never hunted large animals but, why? Surely the main rifle is just as suitable? Or are we talking shotguns rather than rifles?

Wouldn't have a scooby. downloading one of those make yer own manuals would probably be the easiest way. other than than. Probably need to re-associate with a few choice loonballs i grew up with, not somewhere I ever want to be. either that or just ask someone in the pub, sure someone would know someone..

Pretty sure that a couple of years ago someone local to us got busted for running a business turning deactivated firearms back into proper weapons. They are probably out of prison now, so a quick Google would start me off.

I've never hunted large animals but, why? Surely the main rifle is just as suitable? Or are we talking shotguns rather than rifles?

it can be complex.

big heavy slow bullet at close range with an open sight versus ricochet risk with a high powered frangible rifle bullet that is scoped/zeroed for 200 yards so you can't reliably aim it, though few UK hunters would ever carry a pistol round when stalking, and to be honest, most pistol use is where they are retained for humane dispatch of road injured animals, or farm animals (lots of brick walls, concrete, tarmac etc) or foxes in live catch traps, all of hitch its much safer and more discreet than waving round a shotgun.

Pretty sure that a couple of years ago someone local to us got busted for running a business turning deactivated firearms back into proper weapons. They are probably out of prison now, so a quick Google would start me off.

Sounds like you live near me, - the local chip shop/chippy is also known as the gun club for that reason!