Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent blank guns being converted to weapons which can fire live rounds.

The Government keeps firearms legislation under close review to ensure that the law responds to threats to public safety posed by firearms including converted blank firing firearms.

Blank firing guns are, generally speaking, regarded as imitation firearms under firearms legislation. They are categorised by how the discharge, or vent, fumes or gases when fired: either at the top of the gun known as Top Venting Blank Firers, or from the front of the gun known as Forward Venting Blank Firers. In particular, realistic imitation firearms are subject to controls under the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, while readily convertible imitation firearms, which are those blank firing firearms that can be converted to fire live ammunition without any special skill and using tools or equipment that are generally available are, by virtue of the Firearms Act 1982, controlled under the Firearms Act 1968.

In response to concern about specific types of Top Venting blank firing firearms being converted into lethal firearms and used in crime, the Government has worked closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) lead on illegal firearms, and it has taken action against specific types of Top Venting blank firing firearms. Following testing in 2024, these blank firing firearms had been found to be readily convertible and therefore contrary to firearms legislation. The specific features of these blank firing firearms also means they fall within the prohibited categories of firearms provided for by section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968. An amnesty was organised by the NPCC lead in which anyone in possession of the specific types of Top Venting blank firing firearms was able to hand them into a local police station. The amnesty started on 3 February 2025 and ran for four weeks.