January 2025 Review

GCN is committed to preventing gun violence and we work to pursue that objective through changes to the legal system, public services and attitudes to guns. We collect and analyse data to provide all stakeholders with the evidence needed to initiate change.

GCN collects data on gun incidents and related sentences, inquests and investigations in England, Scotland, and Wales, as reported in the British media. We know our information is incomplete, though we believe nearly all the most serious crimes are included.

This Review refers to incidents that occurred during January 2025 and to earlier incidents for which further information has now been reported, often as a result of a court case or inquest. Please note that the data used for the Figures is derived solely from incidents that occurred, or first came to our attention, in January 2025.

Figure 1: January 2025 incident reports by type

Gun Deaths

We monitor FATAL GUN INCIDENTS in Great Britain and compile lists that summarise the available information. Our summaries for 2017 to 2024 are available at https://gun-control-network.org/news-analysis/

We are not aware of any reports concerning gun deaths in January 2025.

Inquests

We are aware of one report of an inquest in January 2025 relating to a gun death:

• An inquest into the death of a man outside a hospital in Macclesfield, Cheshire in December has been opened and adjourned. The man was found dead in his car with a gun in his hand and a wound to the back of his head. The death is not being treated as suspicious.

Fatal Accident Inquiry

We are aware of one report of a Fatal Accident Inquiry in January 2025 relating to a gun death:

• A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into the death of a soldier at RAF Tain, Scotland in 2016 has concluded that a rifle accidentally discharged as he held it pointing upwards towards himself. The man, who was on a sniper course, died of a head wound. The FAI noted that, while there were no defects in any system of working which contributed to the death, the accident was “realistically avoidable” with several precautions not taken to avoid it. These included the victim being commanded to follow an unload drill at the conclusion of the first shooting detail and the nominated safety supervisor leaving the firing line, thereby not observing him carrying out the unload drill to note any defect or issue. 

Armed Domestic Violence and/or Victim Known to Perpetrator 

We are aware of two reports in January 2025 that we believe to relate to the above:

• A 25-year-old man has been jailed for three-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to possession of an imitation firearm, affray and attempted theft. In September 2023, the man and two unknown accomplices broke into a shed in Redcar, North Yorkshire and tried to steal some bikes. When the householder, who recognised the defendant, called out to him, he pointed an imitation gun at her and told her to go back inside. He was arrested in May 2024. The court heard that the woman’s family felt forced to leave their home as a result of the incident.

• A 77-year-old man from Audley, Staffordshire, has been handed a suspended nineteen-month prison term after pleading guilty to two charges of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. In September 2023, during a row with a neighbour about asbestos being dumped on land adjoining their properties, the 77-year-old began to experience chest pains. Despite paramedics advising him to go back into his house, he continued to argue with his neighbour before pushing him to the ground. He then collected an air pistol from his home and pointed it at his victim and the victim’s adult son. A paramedic managed to disarm the man and remove the cartridge from the weapon. Armed police officers attended and discovered that eight chambers of the gun contained pellets. On sentencing, the recorder said that the weapon looked like a real gun, causing his victims to feel “abject terror”. The man was also made the subject of a five-year restraining order.

Licensed/Former Licensed Owners/Dealers/Legal Guns and Ammunition, and Stolen Guns and Ammunition

We are aware of at least two reports in January 2025 that we believe to relate to the above:

• It has emerged that, in July 2020, a man was accidentally shot in the leg in Easington, North Yorkshire. The man, a farmer, was driving an open-sided vehicle when he stopped to speak to a gamekeeper from a neighbouring estate. When the gamekeeper leaned over the passenger seat of his own car to chat, he knocked over a loaded gun that did not have the safety catch engaged. The gun discharged and a 0.22 bullet fired through the passenger door and into the farmers left thigh. The victim, who is now suing the estate the gamekeeper works for, says he has been left with a limp and chronic pain from his injury.

• It has emerged that, in July last year, a man was found with a rifle that he had stolen from a car parked in Slad Woods, He has since admitted possessing a firearm without a certificate and theft from a motor vehicle.

We are aware of at least four reports in January 2025 involving the use of a police Taser, including:

• An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct has concluded that police officers who handled an incident during which two dogs were shot and a man was tasered, did not behave in a manner that could justify disciplinary action or criminal charges. In May 2023, the police officers found a woman had suffered leg injuries after being attacked by a dog in Poplar, East London. The dogs were shot and their owner tasered after he failed to surrender the animals and they came free of his grip. The owner was later handed a suspended sentence for owning two dangerous out-of-control dogs.

• A police officer responding to reports of a man with a knife making threats in Whalley Range, Manchester, tasered the suspect. The man was treated in hospital for injuries received during his detention. Three police officers were also injured during the incident.

Animal Death and Injury

We are aware of at least three reports in January 2025 of animal cruelty and/or death involving a gun:

• A member of the public found the remains of a number of ducks, whose breast meat had been removed, near a skate park in Calne, Wiltshire. X-rays revealed the birds had been shot. Police have appealed for information.

• A cat has had an eye removed after she was shot with an air rifle in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Police have appealed for information.

• A swan was put to sleep after being shot in the pelvis with a suspected airgun in Romney, Hampshire. Police have appealed for information.

Imitation, Airsoft, airguns and BB guns do not currently require a licence in England or Wales. These guns are responsible for many gun injuries to both humans and animals.

N.B. Since January 2017, airgun owners in Scotland have been required to have a licence, and airgun crime in Scotland has decreased by one third.

Gun Control Network, The RSPCA, Cats Protection, other organisations and individuals are calling for similar legislation in England and Wales after 300,000+ members of the public petitioned in favour of airgun licensing.

The previous Government’s Response to a further Consultation, sent predominantly to shooting organisations but not to women’s organisations or those supporting victims of domestic violence, concluded not to license airguns in England and Wales.

Border Force and National Crime Agency

We are aware of at least three reports in January 2025 relating to the above:

• A 48-year-old man and a 35-year-old man have each been jailed for seventeen years after being found guilty of importation of a firearm and conspiracy to import Class A drugs, while the older man also admitted possession of cannabis with intent to supply. In July 2023, Border Force officers at Stanstead Airport, Essex intercepted a package from the USA containing a self-loading pistol and two empty 9mm magazines. National Crime Agency investigators found that the intended recipient was fictitious and the delivery address was a derelict property in South London. Phone analysis revealed both men were involved in importing the handgun and drugs from America and Trinidad, respectively. They were arrested after surveillance by specialist officers. A Samurai sword, machete and crossbow were subsequently found at the older man’s flat along with drugs and associated paraphernalia.

• A 27-year-old man from Luton, Bedfordshire has been jailed for nineteen years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to contravene section 170 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited weapons and a further firearms offence. Between 2017 and 2018, Border Force officers intercepted three packages from Slovakia and the Czech Republic that contained four prohibited weapons. One of the parcels was addressed to the man’s neighbour and when questioned, she explained that he had told her he wanted it sent to her home to prevent his mum finding out how much money he was spending on fashion items. National Crime Agency investigators discovered that the man had received nine other packages containing eight guns and three batches of ammunition, and that he used three other neighbours’ addresses to receive parcels. A long-time friend of the man’s also helped him by collecting and storing weapons. He was arrested after a loaded revolver was seized from his home and sentenced to eighteen months for the same first two charges.

• A 41-year-old man has been jailed for twelve years after pleading guilty to being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of goods. In 2024, UK Border Force officers stopped the man’s car after he arrived by ferry to Dover, Kent. They recovered eighteen loaded handguns and more than 230 rounds of ammunition from a compartment in the front bumper of the vehicle.

Sentences and Convictions

We are aware of at least 41 reports in January 2025 of sentences and convictions for gun crime, including:

• A 54-year-old man has been jailed for five years and three months after pleading guilty to multiple counts of possessing a firearm without a licence. Following a tip off, police officers searched storage containers in Bournemouth, Dorset and recovered a revolver, three pistols, a crossbow and a stun gun. Six rifles, including bolt actions and semi-automatics, were assembled from disassembled parts. The man was arrested in Cumbria in January 2021.

• Four men have been jailed for life after being convicted of murder. In August 2022, a man was fatally shot as he left a children’s birthday party at a community centre in Walthamstow, East London. He died later in hospital. Investigations revealed that one of the assailants wrote drill music lyrics in which he boasted about the attack, despite the intended target being another man. The court heard that the hit had been planned by the gang members as a revenge attack and that the gun had been used on seven previous occasions, including in 2020 when the victim’s older brother survived a shooting by the same weapon. On sentencing, the judge said that careful planning had gone into the attack, including obtaining a gun, organising a stolen car for the getaway and attempts to dispose of the evidence. The defendants were also convicted of conspiracy to murder another man and conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life.

• A 30-year-old man has been jailed for four years and eight months after being found guilty of assault, robbery and possession of an imitation firearm. In February 2024, he arranged to meet a woman at her home in Glasgow, Scotland for a massage. Once inside the property, he pulled an airsoft gun that resembled a self-loading pistol before stealing £200. Later the same month, he met a woman at her home in Edinburgh on the same pretext, again, threatening her with the firearm and demanding money. On this occasion, the victim defended herself with “some kind of spray” and the man fled, empty-handed. The court heard that the man claimed to have carried out the attacks after human traffickers abducted his brother in Libya and threatened to kill him unless he paid them a ransom.

• A 20-year-old man has been jailed for nine years after admitting possessing a firearm, possessing ammunition, having drugs with intent to supply, assaults and being concerned in the production of drugs. After police officers stopped his car in Rowley Regis, West Midlands in October 2024, the man ran away from the vehicle. When he was apprehended nearby, he stabbed one officer with a key and kicked another. A loaded handgun was later recovered from a bag he had discarded as he fled. Cash and drugs were discovered in another bag found in the car.

• A 23-year-old man has been jailed for five years for possession of a firearm. After he fell out with his ex-partner, the man asked her to give him a gun that he had stored at her home in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Upon hearing the weapon had been left in her property, the woman contacted police. Officers recovered the “component parts of a pen gun” and two .22 long rifle calibre cartridges of ammunition from a shelf above the boiler.

• A 59-year-old man has been handed an eighteen-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work after admitting possession of a prohibited weapon and two counts of possession of a shotgun without a certificate. In December 2023, after the man failed a breathalyser test, police officers recovered what was thought to be either a lighter or a firearm shaped like a pistol from his car. It was later identified as a prohibited weapon. During a subsequent search of his home in Bellingham, Northumberland, officers found four wall-mounted shotguns, two of which required a licence. The man told police that the shotguns had been given to him by an old friend as decorations and that the same friend had given him the pistol on the night he was stopped. The judge ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the seized weapons.

• Three members of an organised crime group who bought ammunition and blank-firing guns that they converted into live weaponry to be sold on to other criminals, have been jailed for conspiracy to supply firearms, conspiracy to supply ammunition, and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs: a 36-year-old man, received 30 years; his 39-year-old brother was sentenced to 20 years and four months, while a 35-year-old man, was jailed for seventeen years and eleven months. In November 2023, specialist investigators identified the 36-year-old man as the group’s leader. He bought at least nineteen firearms, with documents and bank records linking him to two known conversion factories. The 39-year-old man, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, purchased at least 125 blank firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, while phone records proved he had liaised with the 35-year-old man and sent him money. He then converted the weaponry and was found to have specialist tools and more than 750 rounds of ammunition in his garden shed. The three men had also been involved in producing ‘zombie dust’, a dangerous mix of heroin and other substances.

• A 53-year-old man has been jailed for five years after pleading guilty to two counts of possessing prohibited firearms and possessing a firearm without a certificate. In September 2022, police officers raided the man’s home in Caerphilly, South Wales, following a tip off. They recovered double-barrelled shotguns, blades and swords, ammunition, a self-loading pistol and two semi-automatic rifles. The court heard that two of the prohibited firearms had been bought while the man lived in America, while a third weapon was purchased in the UK. This weapon had been legal until it was adapted to allow him to use it onehanded due to a disability.

• A 19-year-old man has been handed a community payback order with 300 hours of unpaid work and three years of supervision after pleading guilty to four firearms offences. Acting on intelligence, police officers searched the man’s home in Rannoch, Perthshire and discovered ammunition and 3D-printed firearm components in his bedroom. The parts included a hammer, magazine, catch, trigger and safety grip, while a buffer assembly had been ordered online to allow manufacture of a gun. Ammunition capable of being fired from the weapon was also seized. The court heard that the man had received the printer as a Christmas present from his parents and that he had made all the parts required to build a complete firearm. On sentencing, the judge said there was no evidence that the man, who has autism, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity syndrome, held any extreme political views or connection to organised crime, while a psychiatrist concluded that his “focussed interest in firearms” had passed. The judge concluded that these reasons constituted exceptional circumstances, allowing her to waive the usual minimum term of three years detention. The man was, however, made the subject of a restraining of liberty order, requiring him to be tagged and prohibited from leaving his home between the hours of 8pm and 6am for one year.

• A man has been subjected to an indefinite hospital order under the Mental Health Act after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to cause ear of violence, possessing a firearm in a public place and possession of cannabis. In February 2024, a neighbour asked the man what he was doing after hearing him shouting and swearing outside his home in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The man went back inside his home and aimed an air rifle through an attic window at his neighbour. The victim, who heard two shots, fled for cover. He saw the man again later the same day, this time with what looked like a black handgun in the waistband of his trousers. Police officers subsequently recovered several pistols, an air rifle, an archery bow, ammunition, several knives and a handmade axe from the perpetrator’s home. The court heard that the man, who has paranoid schizophrenia, will need lifelong specialised treatment. In an impact statement, the victim said he and his family have since moved out of their home as they were afraid of the assailant.

• A 20-year-old man has been placed under a two-year-supervision order after brandishing an airsoft gun in a supermarket car park in Elgin, Moray. The man showed the gun to two people in a vehicle, saying. “Look what I’ve got”. The victims believed the gun to be real and alerted the police. The court heard that police officers, calling at an address in the town on a separate matter earlier the same day, had seen the man with the gun and advised him not to take it out of the house.

• A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 24 years, after being found guilty of three charges of attempted murder and admitting intending to supply cocaine and cannabis. In October 2022, the man fired four shots from a pistol at a crowd of mourners who were attending a wake for a teenage stabbing victim at a church hall in Birmingham, West Midlands. Three men were hit in the chest, foot and knee, respectively, while a teenage girl was trampled as people tried to flee the scene. A stolen car, in which the man had arrived at the scene, was found abandoned the following day. The man was arrested after CCTV, mobile phone and forensic evidence placed him in the vehicle. On sentencing, the judge said “Sadly, this is yet another case of very serious violence involving the use of firearms between street gangs within this city. It’s remarkable that one or more were not killed – you had no regard at all for human life.”

Many incidents involve the use of airguns*, Airsoft, imitation and BB guns, which do not require a licence and may not contain ammunition but are used by perpetrators to capitalise on the fear of victims who believe they are about to be shot. Traumatised victims are often unable to identify the weapons used. It is extremely difficult to distinguish between imitation and live-firing guns unless the weapons are fired and/or recovered, and, for this reason, guns involved in incidents frequently remain unidentified.

Shotguns and rifles can be legally held by those granted a licence. Ultimately, legally-obtained guns in every country tend to find their way into the wrong hands, whether through theft, corrupt gun dealers, and/or the failure of the licensing procedure to identify legal gun owners who pose a risk to themselves and/or others.

Please see the endnote for further explanation of gun types and current legal status.

Figure 2: January 2025 Weapon types recorded in firearm incidents

Notes

See Gun incidents in Great Britain page for details of incidents involving these gun types.

Guns that do not require a licence: Airguns* (so-called ‘low-powered’); Airsoft; ball-bearing; imitation; paintball; antique; deactivated; bolt guns** and starting pistols/blank firers. These guns are cheap, accessible and available to buy on impulse. Moreover, lack of secure storage requirements enables theft. Many are capable of being converted into more powerful weapons. Guns deactivated to early specifications are capable of reactivation and recent, more rigorous specifications are not retrospective.

There is no legal definition of ‘antique’ and, although possession of antique guns is prohibited to those having served or received a criminal sentence, it is unclear how this is administered during sales and transfers.

Airsoft guns are exempt from the terms of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 and are ‘self-regulated’ by the Airsoft industry. The Home Office fails to collect data on the proliferation of Airsoft skirmishing sites.

• *From January 2017 air gun owners in Scotland have required a licence.
• ** A ‘slaughter licence’ is required for a bolt gun.

Guns that require a licence: Airguns in Scotland; shotguns; rifles; police firearms/ Tasers.

Gun Control Network and others welcome the proposed increase in Firearms Licence fees to ‘Full Cost Recovery’ in the interests of public safety. The under-resourced licensing procedure has consistently failed to protect the public from licensed gun-owning perpetrators, and women are particularly at risk of domestic violence involving licensed gun owners. The inadequate licensing procedure has been subsidised by taxpayers to the tune of £20+ million a year. Any number of shotguns can be held on one certificate, which lasts for five years.

The Home Office continues to fail to publish data regarding the number of Licensed Gun Owners/Dealers/Legal Guns and Ammunition involved in non-fatal crime. Similarly, the status of guns used in suicides is not necessarily recorded at Inquests.

Guns that are prohibited: Handguns (revolvers, pistols etc.); Olympic starting pistols; Tasers; submachine guns; and ‘other’ weapons (pepper spray/CS Gas; home-made guns and explosive devices). Certain handguns are exempt from prohibition. Handgun, Taser and pepper spray use is authorised for police, but there are concerns regarding fatalities and Taser training.

Imitation/Airsoft guns are available without background checks. Crimes reported in the media as involving handguns are likely to involve imitations, airsoft, air pistols or other guns that look like handguns, resulting in misleadingly-inflated reports of handgun crime.