Air gun wounding and current UK laws controlling air weapons.
Air weapons whether rifles or pistols are, potentially, lethal weapons. The UK legislation is complex and yet little known to the public. Hunting with air weapons and the laws controlling those animals that are permitted to be shot with air weapons is even more labyrinthine due to the legal power limitations on the possession of air weapons. Still relatively freely available by mail order or on the Internet, an increasing number of deaths have been reported from the misuse of air weapons or accidental discharges. Ammunition for air weapons has become increasingly sophisticated, effective and therefore increasingly dangerous if misused, though freely available being a mere projectile without a concomitant cartridge containing a propellant and an initiator.
Bruce-Chwatt
Robert Michael
RM
Metropolitan Police, London. robert@bruce-chwatt.fsnet.co.uk <robert@bruce-chwatt.fsnet.co.uk>
D000328:Adult; D000388:Air; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D006113:United Kingdom; D054041:Weapons / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014950:Wounds, Penetrating / Q000473:pathology*