Converting killing machines: The gun is capable of firing up to 600 rounds every single minute
By Adrian Addison
An Old Bailey trial has highlighted the trade in turning realistic imitation guns into lethal weapons - a business that can also involve reactivating old firearms. Six O'Clock News reporter Adrian Addison explains how a perfectly legal online purchase was transformed into a potential killing machine.
The Uzi 9mm sub-machine gun is one of the world's most efficient instruments of death.
The Israeli-made firearm has seen action in some of the world's most bloody conflicts.
It is, technically, capable of firing up to 600 rounds every minute.
This is precisely why the gun bears the nickname 'spray and pray' amongst the criminal fraternity who idolise it.
And yet I was able to buy this weapon for £450 from a trader on the internet.
Kalashnikov, Browning, Beretta; I chose this gun at random from a virtual roll call of once lethal military hardware.
Where on earth has this thing been? Has it killed anybody?
Adrian Addison
These former weapons, however, are all 'de-activated' and perfectly legal.
My first thought as I free this lump of metal from the bubble wrap and look down its barrel is: "Where on earth has this thing been? Has it killed anybody?"
Followed by, I have to admit; "Why would anyone want such an ugly, evil-looking thing and where would one display it - on the mantelpiece?"
But there is a thriving trade in ex-military hardware available on the internet, by mail-order and at military fairs.
So long as these weapons are incapable of firing they are, essentially, viewed merely as collectible lumps of metal.
My Uzi was de-activated over 10 years ago - when the rules governing how the process must be carried out were not as tight as they are now.
But it remains perfectly legal in this country.
Easy to fire?
To make it no longer lethal, the gun's barrel is sawn down the middle and a metal rod welded inside to make it incapable of discharging a bullet.
The breech block - which contains the mechanism to actually fire the bullet - is ground down so there is no firing pin.
The rest of it is just as it was when it fired bullets - it cocks and the trigger clicks. In this condition it is perfectly safe.
But just how easy is it to make it fire again?
"It's not necessarily a simple task but, a couple of spare parts and some specialist machinery," our gun expert Richard Howell told us. "And we can get this gun to fire again."
Andrew Walker, who was 26, was shot dead in August 2001 as he lay in the bath at his home in Lincoln. His 17-year-old brother was also shot dead.
They were both murdered by a man called Jeremy Earls, who later turned the gun on himself.
There is no reason for these guns to be in existence
Steve Walker
The gun that killed all three was an Uzi, just like mine, that had at one point been de-activated.
Someone, somewhere along the line had made it lethal once again.
Andrew's father, Steve Walker, is a former policeman who has campaigned for de-activated guns to be banned or at least restricted since his son's murder.
"I would show anyone who wants one of these things a photograph of my son," he told us after we showed him our gun.
"And I would ask if they want another family to suffer as we have suffered. There is no reason for these guns to be in existence.
"Except for a small number held in museums and the like, when the military are finished with them, they should be destroyed. Permanently."
The Violent Crime Reduction Bill which is currently making its way through parliament will add further restrictions on the ownership of potentially lethal weapons.
But these de-activated firearms will not be outlawed.
Lethal again
And lovers of all things military at the War and Peace fair in Kent last week insisted there is no need for further gun laws and that de-activated weapons are harmless.
One said: "If a criminal wants a gun, he'll buy one for pennies from his local drug dealer not come here and buy a de-activated weapon."
Meanwhile, Richard Howell and his colleagues were working on my gun.
Within a few days they invited me down to a firing range in Surrey to see how far they had got with the weapon.
"Well," Richard said, "We had the bits and spent about an hour and a half working on it." He pulled the trigger.
A cluster of bullets quickly formed in the white target, dust coughing up from the sand bank behind.
My Uzi was lethal, once again.
The weapon was subsequently put beyond use and destroyed.
DE-ACTIVATING AN UZI
1 - Barrel is sawn open along most of its length
2 - End of barrel is rendered unusable and a metal rod welded inside
3 - Breech block is ground down until firing mechanism is destroyed
4 - Trigger and magazine still work but don't fire
BBC Six O’clock News Thursday, 27 July 2006.
