Look at our hand wringing brit friend nashwan and others... In their countries I could get a firearm in no time... a day... a week at most. The law does not stop me... it is the penalty that stops me.
Can I give you a sample case that shows how hard it is to get a gun in the UK if you don't have serious connections?
There's a woman called Dawn Fields. Lived in London, her boyfriend was an American criminal. He sent her £400,000 ($600,000 at the time) cash for her to launder. The money went missing.
Fields believed she knew who had taken it, and flew over 3 thugs from New York. They went to get the money from the man they believed had stolen it, but he was out. Fields had ordered them to kidnap his 10 year old son if he was out, which they did. They held him for 2 days and threatened to kill him if the £400,000 wasn't returned. The police eventually rescued him.
They were all convicted on firearms charges, kidnapping, false imprisonment and blackmail. Fields got 15 years, the leader of the New York gang got 13 years, his two gang members got 12 years each and Fields' brother, the getaway driver, got 10 years. These are all substantial sentences, far more than you get for possession of a gun.
The "guns" they used were 3 replica pistols, incapable of firing anything more than a plastic bb. In a dispute over $600,000 of illegal money, with criminals flown in from the US, abduction of a child etc, and all they could come up with was 3 toy guns.
In the eyes of the law in the UK, there is no difference between a replica gun used in a crime and a real gun. They attract the same penalties. Indeed, the law regards anything the criminal portrays as a gun as a firearm, with the same penalties. The only reason to use a toy gun instead of a real one is cost or availability.
The Home Office recently concluded a study into firearms availability amongst criminals. They interviewed 80 men serving sentences for crimes involving firearms.
Shotguns were fairly cheap, and fairly easily available (shotguns have a much more relaxed licensing regime in the UK).
Handguns started at £400 - £800 ($800 - $1600) for converted toys and replicas, usually firing 22 LR. They are not liked because they are frequently dangerous to the user, aren't very reliable, and of limited effectiveness.
New genuine handguns started at about £1000 - £1400 ($2000 - $2800).
Ammunition was reported as even harder to get than the guns themselves.
The prices are high, but unless you have the right contacts, you can't even find a gun for sale. Both these factors keep guns out of the hands of the vast majority of criminals.
