Weapons of choice

NEARLY 5,000 firearms have been stolen since 2011 and another 1,500 reported lost, a Mirror FOI request to the Home Office revealed.

Here the National Crime Agency’s firearms threat lead Matt Perfect explains how criminals use the various types of firearm.

ORIGINAL PURPOSE

OPERATION Venetic, led by the NCA following the hack of the Encrochat phone network, led to the seizure of 115 “original lethal purpose” weapons including AK-47S, an Uzi and a Skorpion sub-machine gun.

Matt says: “If you are the top end of serious organised crime, and you’ve got something to protect at all costs, you are going to do that by using OLP weapons. Probably one or two, maybe maximum three people have got access to that firearm.”

Crime expert Paul James said the guns were “enablers” for crimes such as drug trafficking.

CONVERTED GUNS

Blank-firing replicas of OLPS can be converted to fire live rounds.

Matt said: “Essentially they replace the smaller barrel – 4mm comes out, insert 9mm barrel, and with a bit of welding here and there you’ve essentially got a 9mm handgun... in less than two minutes.”

He said the “very cheap” guns are found in “deprived areas”. Gun expert Glenn Lawrence said blank-firers from Turkey were made of softer metal that made conversion easier.

SHOTGUNS

THERE are nearly 1.4m shotguns and more than 600,000 other firearms, mostly rifles, held legally in the UK.

Of the 590,000 people with firearm or shotgun certificates, 94% are male and 2,770 are under 17.

Matt says: “A shotgun is more likely to be used against a vehicle, a premises, a building because your accuracy dealing with a sawn-off shotgun – unless you’re really up close and personal or very confident with a firearm – is very difficult.

“You’ve got the kick on it and... the displacement of the projectile.

“Generally, they are seen as a bit of a show of threat of violence.”