GCN ARCHIVE

Replica Firearms: A New Frontier in the Gun Market

        by Ian Taylor and Rob Hornsby

University of Durham

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Research Summary

  • The concern is that weapons manufacturers, in response to the 1997 Firearms (Amendment) Act, which banned the private ownership of handguns, have targeted the emergence of a new market in replica firearms in Britain.  There is evidence that these manufacturers have engaged in the aggressive marketing of alternative products to their existing customer base.

 

  • At a time when the gun trade is having to deal with a variety of legal challenges in a number of American states, the market in air weaponry, blank-firers and sophisticated replicas has had the distinct advantage of being  steady, or in some cases expanding, market whose legality is under no challenge, in Britain, or elsewhere.

 

  • In responding to the challenge of the British removal of handguns from private ownership since the 1997 legislation, firearm manufacturers have taken full advantage of the 1997 Act through aggressive marketing of alternative products to existing and developing customer bases.  The value of imports of air weapons, this classification also includes detailed ‘replicas’ of real ‘live firing’ handguns (as defined by the Department of Trade and Industry’s own classification system) increased by some 92% between 1997 and 1999.  Firearm manufacturers based in the United States, Germany, Sweden and Spain commanded 76% of this UK market.

 

  • Our research has revealed that sophisticated replica handguns are available to citizens of the United Kingdom in several different ways.  They can be purchased over the internet, by mail order from gun magazines, from Army and Navy style market stalls, gunsmiths, and ‘leisure’ pursuit clothing stores.  The only restriction for sale of such weaponry is that the purchaser is over seventeen years of age.

 

  • In the United States, Los Angeles became the first U.S. City to outlaw the manufacture and sale of replica guns after the deaths of a number of youths;  short by police officers, having mistaken the replica weapons brandished by a number of young people as ‘real’ weapons.  Other states in the US  that have comprehensive laws regarding the design, sale, distribution and ownership of replica firearms include, Connecticut, Kansas, New Jersey and Wisconsin.

See > What are Other Countries Doing?

  • Research enquiries highlight that there is evidence that imitation or replica weapons (particularly ‘handguns’) may have played an important role in many so–called ‘armed robberies’ reported in England and Wales since the early 1990s. Research has revealed that the types of recovered firearms used in armed robberies in the Metropolitan Police district accounted for, known to be real 35%, and known to be imitations 65%.  This evidence suggests that replica firearms are being used to commit this category of serious offence.