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Gaz wrote:They had an SA80?! Someone's going to be in deep doo-doo when the serial number on that gets traced back.

:shock:

Agreed.

I'm obviously very ignorant to the whole situation, I would have thought that in today's world of forms for this and signatures for that and counter signings for toliet breaks, it would be impossible for a batch of SA80s to go walk about.

I mean, how does that work?

CO "Where's that crate of SA80s, QMS?"
QMS "Err, lost, sar. Fell off the truck"

Tower.75 wrote:

Gaz wrote:They had an SA80?! Someone's going to be in deep doo-doo when the serial number on that gets traced back.

:shock:

Agreed.

I'm obviously very ignorant to the whole situation, I would have thought that in today's world of forms for this and signatures for that and counter signings for toliet breaks, it would be impossible for a batch of SA80s to go walk about.

Apparently quite a few weapons go walkies on training areas as people manage to lose them. How you lose a rifle that's strapped to you, I don't know - but at least one SA80 lost on a training area turned up in Liverpool, iirc.

There were 3 LSW versions stolen about 4 years ago, iwonder if it's one fo them?

I recall a couple of SA80's going missing from an RAF base in 92!

Mike

Would be funny if they turned out to just be air-soft reps, or maybe the scots are preparing to protect their borders when develution comes in.

How come I never find stuff like that when I go for walks?

I think the people would be very surprised if they ever knew how common it was that all branches of the military lose weapons.......

There have been numerous thefts from military armouries over the years (an average of 56 each year). SA80s have turned up in the hands of the IRA, drug dealers, white supremacists etc. There was a fellow a couple of years ago who was otherwise a regular, law abiding guy who murdered a man he believed had been abusing his niece and when police searched his home they found, besides the man's body, some unregistered rifles and shotguns - one of which was an SA80.

There were also some semi-auto versions made for the commercial market which could have gone walkabout (also the straight-pull cadet versions that were sold commercially after the semi-auto ban), but much more likely it's a stolen army gun.

As for 'preparing for something' from the story I understood that the people who found the guns own/live on the farm where they were found. It seems unlikely someone would leave a cache of illegal guns on someone else's farm where they would be found like that. It also says they were found wrapped in a blanket - I suppose criminals often are not the brightest bunch but anyone with half a brain would take measures to protect the guns from rusting if they intended to come back for them. So I'd assume they've just been dumped in order to get rid of them rather than risk turning them into the police. Makes you wonder why they wouldn't chuck them in the sea though!

If you do want to prepare for a 'vote from the rooftops' situation then this guide may be helpful.

Maybe I don't understand UK laws. There's this farm house I'm renting with a bunch of friends, so I am the legal tenant. We decide to leave some of our guns there. Someone comes and searches the property, and takes the guns away .....

How does that work? Doesn't there have to be a crime committed somewhere before they do that?

ShootingSight wrote:Doesn't there have to be a crime committed somewhere before they do that?

It sounds as though they were guns that are illegal in this country, so I suppose that a crime has already been committed just by them being there.

It sounded to me like the tenants/owners of the farm found the guns on their land and knew nothing about them i.e. they had been dumped or hidden there. Even if they were legally owned it would be a crime to leave them lying about, especially on someone else's land. Also the guns were described as a shotgun, handguns and assault rifles. The latter two are banned here so couldn't be legally owned by ordinary people anyway.