BN -- THEY’RE known as “junk guns”, deadly firearms made from a jumble of copper pipes, bike parts, old power tools, and held together...
BN -- THEY’RE known as “junk guns”, deadly firearms made from a jumble of copper pipes, bike parts, old power tools, and held together by cable ties.
Record numbers of homemade guns made from materials easily sourced at local hardware stores are hitting the streets, with teenage boys in the city’s southwest and outlaw bikie gangs the prime market.
The weapons are made using instructions found online and include so-called pen and slam guns that use pipes to replicate a shotgun.
They account for about 10 per cent of all firearms being seized by police.
Firearms Squad commander Mick Plotecki said some pen guns sold for as little as $100 and were often as dangerous to the user as they were to other people.
“Most of them are very unsafe weapons, they can blow up in your hand,” he said.
“They are only single-shot pen pistols but one shot is enough. One shot can kill somebody.
“They’re easily concealable and people that make them sell them for relatively small prices.
“Good criminals have the connections to get existing guns but on the lower end, those guns aren’t available so they move to the next thing. We’re seeing it as a growing trend.
“We seem to be seeing it more than we have previously. It does seem to be younger males going for these pen guns, a lot of them in south-western Sydney.
“They seem to be very popular with outlaw motorcycle gang members and also some of the customers are younger males who buy them for various reasons which we can’t explain.
“That’s a concern that they can source guns in the first place, and the fact that people make them and sell them.”
Mr Plotecki said that while there was no evidence the homemade guns had been used by local extremists, it was a concern for the future.
“There is no evidence of that but the community should be aware of them,” he said.
University of South Australia senior lecturer Kesten Green, who specialises in gun control, said criminals making their own guns made “economic sense” because it was cheaper than importing them.
“If they can’t obtain them legally it is much cheaper (to make them) than importing them,” Dr Green said.
“I would imagine the cost of making them would be relatively low.”
This article was first published on October 24, 2015 8:00pm
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