British Criminals Deal With Ammunition Shortage...With Scotch Tape

Yesterday, we wrote about British gangs having to "rent" guns. But, what do they do for ammunition? When guns and ammunition are in short supply, criminals are only limited by their imagination.

Britain, like the United States, has been experiencing a shortage of ammunition. Not only does that make it hard on the target shooter there, it also makes it tough on gang members to have enough ammunition to do business. But, the British crooks have a unique, though dangerous, solution to the problem. What does one do in Britain if you are a gang member, and only have access to center fire ammunition that’s a smaller caliber than required for the larger caliber illegal gun you have?  Wrap the smaller round with Scotch Tape to make it fit into the chamber.

Investigators at some recent shootings have found poor quality homemade bullets, and brass that has been wrapped with Scotch Tape to fit larger caliber guns than they are designed for. 

This improvised ammunition could end a criminal’s day with a real bang.

And elsewhere in the world of improvised firearms in Britain:

For several years, British Police have been contending with a new working firearm converted from a Lithuanian blank firing gun.  It is the Baikal gas powered gun, a blank firing gun, illegally converted into 9mm by re-machining the barrel to 9mm. 

These blank firing guns can be purchased for as little as 40 to 100 pounds in Lithuania. There’s a cottage industry in the Vilnius area that is converting these guns into functionality. They are then smuggled into Britain, already converted to 9mm, and sold for 1,500 to 2,000 pounds per gun. That's a hefty return on their investment.

This goes to prove that when the public is disarmed, criminals will find a way to get guns. They won’t turn theirs in, only law abiding "victims to be" will. They will steal them, they will buy them on the street, or rent them, or make something that will shoot from whatever is at hand. In gun free Britain, one forensics lab has linked 350 of these Baikal guns to gun crime in the last year.

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