November 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 November 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 November 2025.

Figure 1: November 2025 incident reports by type

Gun Death

We monitor FATAL GUN INCIDENTS in Great Britain and compile lists that summarise the available information. Our summaries for 2017 to 2025 are available at https://gun-control-network.org/news-analysis/

We are aware of one report concerning one gun death in November 2025:

• A teenage boy died earlier this month after being shot in the eye with an air rifle in Tadley, Hampshire. An inquest, opened and adjourned until October 2026, heard that the youth had been at a friend’s house when the weapon was fired in the garden. A preliminary cause of death has been given as a gunshot wound to the head.

Inquests

We are aware of four reports of inquests in November 2025 relating to gun deaths:

• The coroner at the inquest into the death of a man in Liverton, Devon has recorded a verdict of suicide. The man shot himself in the head with his legally-held shotgun at his home in June 2024. The inquest heard that the man’s business had failed due to the Covid pandemic and that his wife had encouraged him to seek professional help before he died.

• The coroner at the inquest into the death of a man in Great Yeldham, Essex has recorded a verdict of suicide, cause of death being a gunshot wound to the head. In June 2024, the man assaulted his mother at her home as she tried to prevent him gaining access to a locked gun cabinet. After the woman lost consciousness, the man found the key to the cabinet and shot himself with a legally-held shotgun. By the time the woman came round, her son had died. The inquest heard that the man had suffered mental health and drug problems before he took his own life. An individual is being prosecuted in relation to a firearms offence in connection with the case.

• The coroner at the inquest into the death of a man in Brixham, Devon has recorded a conclusion of suicide. The man killed himself with his legally-held shotgun at his farm in June 2023, two days after admitting six charges of contravening Environmental Agency (EA) permits, for which he was awaiting sentence. The inquest heard that police removed the man’s guns in 2021 following concerns raised by a friend, but unaware of the ongoing investigation despite the information being shared by the EA, returned the gun to him in 2022. Noting “missed opportunities” to assess the man’s suitability to have the guns and an “absence of more robust processes”, the coroner said she would write a Prevention of Future Deaths report to police as she believed risks remained.

• The coroner at the inquest into the death of a man who was shot dead by police in Dagenham, East London has concluded that he was lawfully killed. In November 2023, the man called police to say he had two loaded guns and intended to take his own life. Armed officers were deployed while police spoke to the man on the phone and encouraged him to leave his home unarmed to seek medical attention. Just under an hour later, the man came out of the property pointing a gun at the firearms officers and was shot. He died shortly afterwards despite first aid given by the officers and treatment from paramedics. A handgun was recovered next to the man’s body and a second firearm was found inside his home. An Independent Office for Police Conduct investigation in December 2024 found no criminal offences, misconduct or learning identified for any officer and that the use of force was necessary, reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances of the incident.

Armed Domestic Violence and/or Victim Known to Perpetrator

We are aware of five reports in November 2025 that we believe to relate to the above:

• A 43-year-old man has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and criminal damage. In January 2025, the man went on a “terrifying spree of destruction” following an argument with his partner at their home in Bolton, Greater Manchester. Over a period of 20 hours, he pointed an air rifle at her while threatening to shoot her in the face, made derogatory remarks about her disabled daughter, destroyed property, set clothes on fire, smeared blood on the walls and shot himself in the foot. The court heard that much of the episode took place in front of one of the woman’s children who had “significant vulnerabilities”. On sentencing, the judge noted that the air rifle had not been loaded when the man pointed it at his victim but added that the woman had believed it was. The man was made subject to an indefinite restraining order forbidding him from contacting or going near his victim.

• A 22-year-old man has been ordered to pay victim compensation of £1,000, complete 300 hours of unpaid work and attend a domestic abuse project after pleading guilty to carrying out a course of domestic abuse. He was also placed on a 7pm to 7am electronic curfew for one year. Between July and October 2023, the man subjected a woman he had met online to physical and verbal abuse, including pushing a car key into her neck and firing a BB gun at her head. The woman, from Falkirk, Stirlingshire, reported the abuse to police after ending the relationship.

• A 29-year-old man has been jailed for four years and eight months after pleading guilty to possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and breaching a non-molestation order imposed to protect another woman from harm. In July 2025, he pointed an airsoft gun at a woman’s head at her home in Nottingham, The incident took place in front of the woman’s children, later said to be traumatised by what they witnessed. The court heard that the man brandished the gun after the woman, who was known to him, tried to stop him returning to a property where he had threatened another woman. After he was arrested by armed police officers, the man was found to be drunk and under the influence of cocaine. The realistic airsoft gun was recovered from the victim’s garden.

• A 46-year-old man has been jailed for eighteen years after being found guilty of murder. In December 2023, he shot a man he knew repeatedly with a paintball gun before stabbing him at an address in Lanark, Lanarkshire. The man, found unconscious, died later from his stab wounds. The defendant told the court that he had gone to the property after a friend asked him for help in getting the victim out of a relative’s home. He claimed to have taken the paintball to scare him but had used it when the man refused to leave the property. He said that he then struck his victim in self-defence, using a knife that still had the sheath on. The defendant’s DNA was recovered from the covering and handle of the knife but the paintball gun has not been recovered.

• A 22-year-old man has been handed a suspended two-year prison term, with 26 sessions of a court accredited programme, 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 200 hours of unpaid work, after admitting threatening to damage or destroy property and possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. In 2022, after his relationship with a teenage girl finished, he threatened to shoot her and anyone who got in his way. After he video called his ex-partner as he was unpacking a handgun and bullets, her father contacted police. Officers recovered the firearm and ammunition from the man’s home in Redcar, North Yorkshire and forensic tests later confirmed it could not fire projectiles. In an impact statement, the victim said she suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and has regular nightmares. The man was made subject to a ten-year restraining order.

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

We are aware of seven reports in November 2025 that we believe to relate to the above:

• See Inquests above — A man in Devon, whose business had failed, took his own life using his legally-owned shotgun.

• See Inquests above — A man in Essex, suffering from mental health issues, overpowered his mother to gain access to a legally-held shotgun, before using it to take his own life.

• See Inquests above — A man in Devon, awaiting sentence after being found guilty of six charges of criminal activity, whose guns had previously been removed, but later returned, took his own life with his legally-held shotgun. 

• See Inquests above — A man, shot dead by armed police in East London, was deemed to have been ‘lawfully killed’. 

• A former shotgun certificate holder has been ordered to pay Constabulary costs of £11,239.60 after his appeal against a decision twelve years ago to refuse him a shotgun certificate was dismissed by a Crown Court judge. The Court upheld Cumbria Constabulary’s decision, finding that reasoning for the refusal was sound and properly made out, the appellant demonstrating a danger to public safety due to historic offending and behaviours in relation to his previous period as a certificate holder. Cumbria Constabulary’s firearms licensing suitability assessments adhere to national guidance which consider previous convictions, integrity and honesty, and compliance with the strict conditions and responsibilities of being a licensed firearms holder.

• A 63-year-old man from Ludlow, Shropshire, has been fined £128 and ordered to pay prosecution costs and a victim surcharge after admitting failing to comply with a condition of his shotgun certificate which required his shotguns to be stored securely, so far as is reasonably practicable, at all times in order to prevent access to firearms or ammunition by an unauthorised person.

• Seven gang members have been sentenced for their involvement in the theft of more than 300,000 bullets. The men received sentences ranging from a twelve-month suspended prison term to four years and nine months in jail for offences including possession of ammunition for a firearm without a certificate. In February 2025, the men broke into a lorry in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands and stole 66 boxes of .22 calibre LR rimfire ammunition. Following a complex investigation, police officers discovered the ammunition stored in Dewsbury and arrested the defendants in Leeds and Kirklees.

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

• Police officers tasered and detained a man at the railway station in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire after he allegedly stabbed several people on a train. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Armed police officers were deployed in response to the incident.

• Police officers tasered and arrested a man following reports that he had been seen with a blade in Belvedere, East London. The man was treated in hospital for self-inflicted injuries.

• It has emerged that, in September 2025, police officers tasered and arrested a man in Wrexham, Denbighshire. The man had allegedly threatened to kill a delivery driver while holding an axe before smashing up his own fence. When police responded, he reportedly shouted at officers from an upstairs window of his home, holding the axe and a kitchen knife. Officers entered the property when the man began cutting himself.

• The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has concluded that a police officer who tasered a man, who subsequently fell to his death from a window, should not face misconduct proceedings. In September 2023, police officers attended a house of multiple occupancy in Birmingham, West Midlands following a report that the man had attacked and injured two residents and had attempted to stab them. One officer tasered the man as he approached an attic window. The man fell from the window and later died from his injuries. An inquest jury recorded that the evidence did not confirm whether the Taser contributed to the man falling from the window. Following the IOPC’s decision, a spokesperson from the organisation said, “We gave weight to the circumstances faced by the officer, given two people had been injured, and a report by an independent expert who concluded that Taser was the most appropriate tactical option to achieve immediate control of a suspect who was believed to be armed with a knife. In terms of the proportionality of the force used, it was also our view there was insufficient evidence upon which a disciplinary panel, could conclude that the officer did not form for a belief that Mr. *** posed a threat to him, or that it was unreasonable in all of the circumstances for him to have done so.”

• Following reports of an attempted burglary in Hornsea, North London, police officers chased a man carrying a knife onto a bus before tasering him. The knife was recovered and the man was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon, grievous bodily harm, theft and assaulting an emergency worker.

Animal Death and Injury

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

• Two swans died after being shot with a .177 pellet gun in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Both birds were shot in the head. Police have appealed for information.

• X-rays revealed that a young buzzard, found unable to fly in Leominster, Herefordshire, had at least two shotgun pellets lodged in its body. It is not known when or where the bird was shot.

• A cat has died after being shot twice with an air rifle in a park in Northampton, Northamptonshire. The shootings occurred one week apart. Police have appealed for information.

• A cat who lived in the grounds of a nursing home in Bootle, Merseyside for eight years, has been found dead, laid out on a tree stump. The cat had been shot in the neck with a suspected pellet gun. An RSPCA spokesperson appealed for information, saying, “We should all want to see a world where animals are treated with kindness and respect. But while it’s still too easy for people to get their hands on an airgun, without the necessary basic safety training, or an understanding of the impact these weapons pose, then animals remain at risk. That’s why the RSPCA wants to see stricter regulations, including better education, training for owners, and a thorough explanation of the law which could help protect countless animals from such attacks in the future.”

• Rural crime police officers appealed for information after a sparrowhawk was found dead in Towcester, Northamptonshire. It is believed that the bird had been shot with a rifle. Sparrowhawks are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and it is an offence to intentionally or recklessly kill or injure them.

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.

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 one report in November 2025 relating to the above:

• A 24-year-old man has been jailed for sixteen years after pleading guilty to importation of cocaine and possession of a firearm and ammunition. In July 2025, National Crime Agency officers searched a boat in the Marina at Watchet, Somerset and found a firearm and bales of cocaine worth £25.5m. The suspect and two other men had collected the drugs from a ship off the Somerset coast, while a fourth man had met them on the slipway when they returned. The three other men were sentenced for drug offences.

Sentences and Convictions

We are aware of at least 37 reports in November 2025 of sentences and convictions for gun crime, including:

• A 46-year-old ‘weapons collector’ has been jailed for five years after admitting possessing a prohibited firearm. In August 2022, armed police officers supported a search of the man’s home in Hull, East Yorkshire, after he was identified as having bought a blank-firing gun. Officers recovered a handgun, later found to have been converted and capable of causing lethal injury. The man who said he had an interest in weaponry and history, claimed the gun was part of a collection of items including blank-firing pistols, muskets, musket pistols, two toy cannons, a crossbow and five swords. He told the court that he had cut the barrel off the gun in an attempt to destroy it, having learned its possession was due to become illegal.

• A 38-year-old man has been jailed for fifteen years and nine months after pleading guilty to possessing prohibited firearms for sale or transfer, possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, unlawful wounding and possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate or authority. In January 2025, he struck a man over the head with a pistol and fired a round. The shot missed the victim, but he required treatment for the assault. Investigating officers searched a storage unit used by the assailant in Northampton, Northamptonshire and recovered a quantity of ammunition, a machine pistol with 120 live rounds, eleven pistols, one other different pistol and a smoke grenade. The pistols had had their original blocked barrel removed, while serial numbers had also been removed from three of them. The man’s DNA was recovered from the trigger of one weapon. The subsequent search of his home address resulted in the seizure of a bullet press, a vacuum sealer and a gun cleaning kit. The court heard that he had attacked the man, whom he had never met before, after identifying him as a competitor in his line of work.

• A 77-year-old man has been handed a suspended two-year prison term and ordered to complete up to 20 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement after admitting to thirteen counts of possession of a firearm when prohibited, possession of indecent images of children, three charges of making indecent images and possession of extreme pornographic images. In May 2024, police officers searched the man’s home in Liverpool, Merseyside as part of an investigation into sexual offences. They recovered three mobile phones and two associated storage cards containing indecent images of children, as well as thirteen firearms dating from before 1939: two double-barrelled self-loading pistols, a single-barrelled pistol, a revolver, a musket and two converted muskets, a double-barrelled musket and five other muskets. The weapons could not be test fired due to their age and the unavailability of compatible ammunition, but an expert determined that there was “nothing mechanically to stop the firearms from working”. The court heard that, although such weapons can be legally possessed without a certificate for the purposes of curiosity or ornament, the man was prohibited from keeping them due to a previous conviction for rape.

• A 22-year-old man has been jailed for eleven years and three months after admitting possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. In May 2025, he drove up behind another car in West Bromwich, West Midlands before firing a shotgun twice. One round missed the vehicle, but the second shattered the rear windscreen and hit the driver. The victim, who suffered multiple wounds to the back of his head and body, managed to drive himself to a local hospital. The court heard that the man was provided with the gun after agreeing to carry out the attack as part of a feud between two others. On sentencing, the judge said that gun crime “destabilises communities” and “can cause tragic loss of life”. He added, “This was entirely brazen in broad daylight in a queue of traffic on a public road. You have thrown away the best years of your life and nobody else is responsible for that but you.”

• A 33-year-old woman has been handed a suspended fourteen-month prison term and ordered to complete 20 rehabilitation activity days and 100 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. In August 2025, the woman had a BB gun in Swindon, Wiltshire with the intent of causing a police officer to believe that unlawful violence would be used against her. The judge ordered the woman to pay £250 compensation to the officer. The BB gun will be destroyed.

• A 34-year-old man has been jailed for 32 years after being found guilty of attempted murder and admitting possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and possessing a prohibited firearm. In April 2025, he shot a man at point blank range in a car park in Dudley, West Midlands. The wounded man self-presented at a hospital shortly afterwards. Armed police officers arrested the suspect eight days later and discovered a shortened shotgun and eleven cartridges in the boot of his car. The court heard that the shooting was a targeted and pre-planned attack, carried out after the suspect used GPS trackers to monitor the movements of his victim.

• A 41-year-old man has been jailed for nineteen years after being found guilty of manslaughter. In June 2020, a man died after being shot eight times with a 9mm pistol as he left a party in Roydon, Essex. Two women, caught in the crossfire, suffered serious injuries. The court heard that the man had acted as a “spotter”, looking out for the victim. Two other men were jailed in May 2024 after being convicted of murder and possession of a firearm, while police believe that other, as yet unidentified, suspects were also involved in the attack.

• A 54-year-old man has been jailed for fourteen months after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm. In July 2024, he shot a friend’s nine-year-old daughter in the head with an air rifle at his storage unit in Leicester, Leicestershire. The court heard that the man “had an honest belief that the rifle was not loaded” and had never intended to pull the trigger. He said that he had called to the girl and, as she turned to face him, the air weapon had discharged. The victim required a five-hour surgery to remove the pellet and bone fragments from inside her brain. She suffered temporary blindness following the operation and has been left with pain, absence periods, mood swings and PTSD. On sentencing, the judge said, “It was your rifle, you must have been aware to some extent of its capability. You were pointing that air rifle towards her head and you had your finger on the trigger with sufficient force for that weapon to discharge… Although the consequences of this were devastating, this was a case of really foolish recklessness. You shot a nine-year-old girl in the head and caused a pellet to lodge in her brain. It is likely to be life-changing. It is for this reason you must go immediately to prison.”

• A 27-year-old man has been jailed for 24 years after pleading guilty to attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent. In August 2025, he shot a man at point-blank range with a shotgun in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. The victim, who suffered serious injuries to his body and left arm, managed to get to a nearby home to call for help. His assailant tried to escape through neighbouring gardens when armed police officers arrived at his home to arrest him, but police dogs cornered him nearby. A search of his address revealed a balaclava and a glove, each stuffed with a shotgun cartridge, while 27 other cartridges were also seized.

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: November 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** certain 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 airgun 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 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. 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.); 3D guns, Olympic starting pistols; Tasers; certain top venting blank firers; 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.