The UK Government has announced ban on knives, firearms and offensive weapons vide press release dated July 14, 2021. The provisions are set out in the government’s Offensive Weapons Act, which received Royal Assent in May 2019. From December 2020 to March 2021, the government ran a scheme allowing members of the public to surrender to the police any items that fell within the new ban and claim compensation from the Home Office. Around 14,965 knives and offensive weapons, 1,133 ‘rapid fire’ firearms (as defined within the Offensive Weapons Act) and more than 32,000 items of ancillary equipment were surrendered, with the Home Office receiving and processing 829 claims for compensation.
Highlights of the ban are:
- Anyone unlawfully possessing a firearm covered by the ban will face up to 10 years in prison and those possessing one of the other weapons can be sentenced to up to six months’ imprisonment or a fine or both.
- Cyclone knives, spiral knives and ‘rapid-fire’ rifles are among those covered by the ban, all of which have been associated with serious violence in communities across the country.
- All weapons banned in public by the Criminal Justice Act 1988, including zombie knives, shuriken or death stars and knuckledusters, will now also be banned in private, meaning people can no longer keep them at home.
- The government is also reminding members of the public about forthcoming changes to the law around antique firearms.
Also, The Antique Firearms Regulations 2021, introduced in March 2021, provides for the first time a legal definition of ‘antique firearm’ to prevent criminals exploiting a lack of clarity in law to gain possession of such a weapon for use in crime. Owners of firearms which have ceased to be antiques as a result of the 2021 regulations have until 22 September this year to apply to the police for a firearms certificate, which allows them to own these weapons legally. Alternatively, they can surrender, sell or otherwise dispose of the firearm before 22 September.
*Tanvi Singh, Editorial Assistant has put this story together.
“Cyclone knives, spiral knives and ‘rapid-fire’ rifles are among those covered by the ban, all of which have been associated with serious violence in communities across the country.”
Unfortunately this statement is untrue. When pressed during the pre-legislation Consultation, the Home Office were unable to give a single example of a criminal case involving a so called “rapid-firing rifle”.
The sporting rifles (scarily dubbed “rapid-fire rifles” by the Home Office) prohibited by the OWA have been used in zero – literally zero – criminal acts in the UK. Not zero this year, or in 2017. Zero. Ever.
It was a shock to the community when the HO sought their prohibition quite out-of-the-blue on the ever-nebulous grounds of “but terrorism”.
One might wonder why there is not more scrutiny of such statements given Priti Patel’s known habit of misleading both parliament and public.