UK Offence Report

Acquisition and possession of firearms by minors

regulation 2(3) of The Firearms (Amendment) Regulations 2010

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

3 In section 22 (acquisition and possession of firearms by minors) for subsection (1) substitute—

1 It is an offence for

a person under the age of eighteen to purchase or hire any firearm or ammunition. .

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 2(3)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Firearms (Amendment) Regulations 2010.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
£5,000
Standard scale
Level 5
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

this is the level 5 value when the instrument came into force (2010-07-28); the standard scale is keyed to the date the offence was committed, and for conduct today the same words mean an unlimited fine.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
6 July 2010
In force from
28 July 2010
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations amend the Firearms Act 1968, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988, the Firearms Rules 1998 and the Firearms (Northern Ireland) Order 2004 (“the Firearms legislation”) for the purpose of implementing the requirements of Directive 2008/51/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (O.J. No. L179, 8.7.2008, page 5) (“the 2008 Directive”), which amends Council Directive No. 91/477/EEC on the control of the acquisition and possession of weapons (O.J. No. L256, 13.9.1991, page 51) (“the 1991 Directive”). Regulations 2, 3, 4 and 5 amend the Firearms legislation in order to implement article 5(a) of the 1991 Directive as amended by article 1(4) of the 2008 Directive, which restrict the acquisition and possession of firearms by persons under the age of 18. Article 5(a) permits a person under the age of 18 to acquire a firearm only by means other than purchase, and to acquire or possess a firearm only in certain circumstances, the relevant ones for the purposes of these Regulations being where the person has parental permission or is under the supervision of a licensed adult.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source