Police raid collector ...

[banksy]

Not sure if this has been posted but it's a intresting read

Guns, rocket launchers and missiles seized by police in Worcester house raid | Mail Online

Regards
Alex

[António Fragoeiro]

Easy, the neighbours tipped them off.
Thanks for the link Alex.
Cheers.
Nuno

[command450]

'I have got nothing to hide - I'm a historical re-enactor and all my weapons are legally held and licensed, except for those that don't need to be like the shells, as they are deactivated.


I am with him ,I bet he is legal. my guess is some nosey neighbor ,should have been minding their own business instead of rat'n out the guy. just ask some questions if you are all scared and worried about what he has.instead of running to the cops like a little b!$%h when they find out they are all deact,they should fire the idiots that are too stupid to know whats real and whats deactivated. return everything and pay him for his inconvience and time.

[davejb]

Unfortunately, this country has the most arcane firearms laws also the paranoia surrounding weapons has reached an all time high, i dont know the final outcome of this news piece but i daresay most if not all of the weapons and deacts were returned to him without so much as an apology, the sad fact is , that anyone can obtain a gun if you know where to look and the right people, when i was a copper i knew many villains that had been armed and could obtain almost any weapon, during a firearms amnesty a guy walked into the station plonked down a long cardboard box on the front desk and walked out, on examination it contained a brand new AK47 still in grease proofing wrapper with two full mags of live ammo and an instruction leaflet in Russian, needless to say that was never destroyed and ended up in the firearms dept, along with an mp40, two lugers and half a dozen different pistols including a p38, if memory serves correct, there was also a bren and a sten gun handed in somewhere else in the county, there were many different rifles of all descriptions mainly ww2, and i daresay still many unlicenced and illegal weapons still available today, but to the police authorities ,collectors are an easy mark especially with paranoid neighbours

[ian]

the fuzz are to frightend to deal with real gun crime
so a raid like this is good publicity (look at us weve nabed a real gun haul)
i hope it backfires on them big style
serves them right ,,useless bas$%£rds
i say to them GET OUT THERE AND DEAL WITH THE REAL CRIME !!!!!!!!!!!!!
cheers ian

[command450]

what I cant believe is how brainless this whole raid was.whomever was in charge of this raid is a bumbling idiot. a complete waste of valuable resources and time. come on, a bomb robot !!! its almost like they just wanted something to do. I mean......good lord, robots for a 62 year old chairman of a rifle club,that everyone knew got into collecting DEACTIVATED stuff.

all they had to do is knock on the door and talk to the chap.they didnt need all this fan fare,with guys wearing camo,like they are raiding a terrorist camp.

then you got the idiot that wrote the story,andy dolan.

His neighbours knew he enjoyed taking part in battle re-enactments.
But they had no idea Graham Lane kept enough weapons in his modest home to start a real war.
Police raided the semi-detached property on a quiet residential estate and left with an arsenal including missiles, grenades, rocket launchers, shells - and even a cannon.

hes deliberately smearing the ole boy,with no proof at all. heck I dont see anywhere,the police "SAID" he has REAL missiles and grenade launchers!!

[ian]

here here well said
it all has to do with being seen to do something rather than actualy doing some thing no wonder noone has faith in the british police any more
they used to be the friend of the public now they are our enamy
dumb as dumb can get
two short planks does not describe it

[GasMasksUK]

A similar thing happened to myself last year, a box containing deacts burst open during the post and the contents were siezed by the police even though they knew fine well that they were deactivated and fully legal. I was actually at the FedEx depot whilst the police were removing them with the certificates that were sent seperatly in my possession but they werent having any of it. I got them back a few weeks later when the weapons has been fully examined by someone with the knowledge on older firearms. It was quite a worrying experience to be honest as part of me was expecting to end up having my house raided by armed officers under the orders of some idiot who's trying to stop gun crime

Its not the first time its happened, look up Michael Shepherd and what happened to him.

The people handing out the orders are either too scared, or too stupid to deal with the real firearm crime so they instead target the innocent and law abiding collectors just to make it look like are doing their jobs. Sickens me to be brutally honest. Not to mention the press dressing up stories......

Thanks

Danny

[ian]

again here here well said

[skypilot]

If I may offer a bobby's perspective (one of my many hats worn at various times!).....

You are quite right, most bobby's in the UK, even the firearms qualified guys have little to no knowledge on historic firearms let alone how to make safe etc. They are trained to use the weapons issued to them and that is pretty much it with a passing nod to "familiarisation" on other weapons that may be encountered.

However, I have taken a bit of initiative and engaged in conversation with the local bobby's, in and out of "the job" and once they know you are genuine in your interest, I have found the very opposite to be true of the above. I have handed in recovered weapons and munitions with no problems, even receiving help in getting an MG08 and RAF .303 Browning deactivated. I have been shown around the collection of seized weapons (live MG42 included - long story!), been asked for advice on potentially historic items as well as identifying replicas from the real article to speed up dealing with incidents. My main coup was to be given a deactivated Bren Mk1M for our museum that I believe came from the family of a deceased collector and handed to Police HQ.

There are misconceptions on both sides and I think if collectors are proactive in engaging with them you may be surprised at how helpful the cops may be. Admittedly I do reside within a very rural force, which does help. Inner city UK cops may be a different beast to deal with....