Fake guns taken off streets in police amnesty
Inspector Andy Johnstone with an air rifle.
NEARLY 40 imitation firearms have been destroyed by police following a month-long amnesty.
The menacing looking guns have been handed in to police in Bromley as part of a Met-wide operation.
Among the phoneys were a sub-machine gun identical to the type used by Met police marksmen, AK-47s, airguns and BB guns.
The no-questions-asked operation also yielded a real shotgun and pistol, as well as 91 cartridges.
Inspector Andy Johnstone, who heads the borough’s Safer Neighbourhoods teams, said: “I am delighted with the response to the amnesty – it has been absolutely fantastic.
“The community has really come together to make this amnesty work, and it is clear the message that carrying imitation firearms is stupid and illegal has hit home across the borough.”
The borough’s 39 replicas were made up of 13 long-barrelled weapons and 26 handguns.
About 1,000 fake guns were handed in across London, where more than half of all gun crime involves imitations.
The replicas can cause serious injury when loaded with ball-bearings and can even be converted into killer weapons.
It is already an offence for under-17s to have an air weapon, but a new law has raised the maximum sentence for anyone carrying an imitation gun in public from six to 12 months.
And Insp Johnstone urged people to report people who sell or supply imitation weapons, after it became an offence to trade or manufacture them.
Report published 12:05pm on Wednesday 20th February 2008
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