Tuesday 10 August 2010

Q's Really Let Himself Go...

Two men have been found guilty of running a Leyton gun factory producing “James Bond-style” weapons.
Well, they certainly had the smarts of Bond villians, anyway:
The CCTV that the duo had set up to avoid detection contributed to their convictions.
/facepalm

5 comments:

Oldrightie said...

Irish?

Man with Many Chins said...

Hahahahahaha

Indyanhat said...

Oooo, I like the keyring very handy!!




wv= usiated,apt eh!

Unknown said...

Articles about 'gun factories' seem to crop up every so often, but... gods, where to start.

"including a pen and a key-ring which had been modified to fire ammunition."

Right, take a piece of 3/8 BSP pipe, a .22 round and a toffee hammer. Now you have a pipe that's been modified to fire ammunition. Erm, right.

"Two Olympic 38 starting pistols in the process of being converted into deadly weapons were also found."

Look, if you're going to insist on this idiotic nonsense of 'deadly weapons' a starting pistol is already a deadly weapon. As is my car, and my penknife, and... well you get the picture. The old saw about there only being deadly people still remains.

"Further guns and ammunition were also found hidden..."

Wow! What type of gun? since the police have given us such detailed descriptions of the pistols involved earlier why not now? For all we know this could refer to a couple of BB guns.

"...and had profited from selling weapons to the criminal underworld."

Erm, isn't possession of a prohibited firearm without a certificate illegal. So... any customer's are by definition criminals?

"The CCTV that the duo had set up to avoid detection contributed to their convictions."

Yeah, can't really add to this one. /facepalm

"'doubtless with the sole intention of selling them on to those intent on committing serious crime.'"

Erm. As mentioned above, possession of these guns is a serious crime. I'm glad to see that the police are keeping an open mind and aren't attempting to prejudge this.

Regardless of how stupid the people involved may have been, this is another case of gun manufacturing being shown to require at least a modicum of skill. It doesn't. Well, not for the sort of weapon that is being dealt with here.

Any half equipped engineering shop could produce far superior weapons from raw stock without all this nonsense of converting anything with a firing pin. About the only challenging part would be manufacturing the barrel - and even that is vastly reduced for a pistol.

What I can't work out is whether the police and newspapers really believe that firearms are so complex to manufacture, or whether they just want the public to believe that

JuliaM said...

"Oooo, I like the keyring very handy!!"

Mmm, would make an ideal Christmas present! :)

"What I can't work out is whether the police and newspapers really believe that firearms are so complex to manufacture, or whether they just want the public to believe that"

I'd go with the latter...