I’ve always been interested in the laws, rules, customs, and perspectives revolving around the importation and/or ownership of “live fire” (i.e. “real”) firearms into the UK.
Because this is a varied, multi-faceted topic with many different opinions and areas of expertise, I thought it would be interesting to open a dialogue of sorts, though a blog doesn’t lend itself to such. In any event, I’ve been corresponding with Adam Bosman (sharpsticks on the Movie Prop Forum) about these issues. As a UK citizen, he has done some research, which he has given me permission to share here:
It seems like if I want to own any prop weapons its going to be easier for me to move to the states than it is to get a gun shipped to me in the UK, deactivated or not. The long and short of it is that any firearm is considered as live fire until it has reached the proof house in the UK and been confirmed as deactivated. Therefore importing a gun into the UK requires a firearms import licence at this end and an export licence at the other.
For an individual to get these licences is both difficult and expensive (and pre-supposes that a standard firearm licence is already held) especially for Section 5 firearms (most hand guns, assault rifles, sub machine guns, machine guns, short barrelled shotguns etc.) For Section 1 and 2 firearms (shotguns and older bolt actions or muzzle loaders) it would be marginally easier but still hard work.
A possible way round this would be to arrange for a dealer who already holds a licence to handle the import as though it is their own merchandise, and then organise the deactivation and sell the piece on to you. I have been advised though that this could be a legal issue as they would be in effect importing a firearm directly for a non-licence holder.
If you did have an import licence or find a fireams dealer willing to import the piece on your behalf you would still be liable for many extra security costs (not least a secure vehicle and a two-man team to collect from the airport!). This is likely to add at least £1000 on to the cost of the weapon, prohibitive I guess for a single item.
Finally two separate deactivated firearms dealers I have spoken to have said that in their experience the ATF has never allowed a firearms export licence to the UK for anything other than parts, and even then barrels and receivers are removed prior to shipping and replaced by replicas at this end. Somehow I think disassembling any prop and replacing half of it with fake pieces to ship it overseas just ain’t worth it! Makes me shudder a little. Lol.
I guess you lucky guys stateside will have to look after these pieces for the foreseeable future. Enjoy them!All the best
Adam
Ps. Useful links:
customs.hmrc.gov.uk/
I know that The Prop Store of London may have some useful information to share in this regard, given their work in selling firearms both here and in the UK, as well as their role in the James Bond weapons sold at Christies last year (see “Archive Of James Bond Film Weapons At Christies“).
Also, though a completely separate issue, these is an interesting discussion on the Replica Prop Forum (the RPF) about changes in law that impact even the importation of replica firearms (see “UK bans the import of replica props…“).
There is also an interesting discussion on the Movie Prop Forum (see “Prop Gun Laws“).
If anyone with expertise on any of these issues has a substantive contribution, please e-mail me or post a comment below and I’ll be happy to repost as an update article.
Thanks,
Jason De Bord