Criminal Armourers and Illegal Firearm Supply in England and Wales

Abstract

The mixed economy of illegal firearms within England and Wales creates novel criminal opportunities for those motivated to become involved in illegal firearm supply. Relatively little is known about these individuals, including where they are positioned within the overall gun supply process. This thesis contributes to the literature by examining armourers’ roles and motivations including how they became involved in illegal firearm supply. It further identifies facilitating factors which have supported their criminal endeavour.
Following a mixed methods approach, this research combines conventional qualitative methods with quantitative statistical analysis of official data from the Office for National Statistics. This England and Wales based study draws upon a realist sociological criminology to understand: the broad trends in gun enabled crime; the transition from the legal to illegal domain that virtually all illegal firearms undergo and a series of sub-cultural case studies, in order to understand and explain the activities, motivations and modus operandi of illegal armourers in making firearms available to criminals.
In collaboration with the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS), this thesis builds upon statistical and operational information from their database with case-study analysis relating to successful operations, combining the experiences and perspectives of 35 individuals, obtained via semi-structured interviews and key informant discussions. Participants include 20 police officers involved in firearm supply operations, five key informants (a number of whom were serving or former police officers with knowledge and experience related to illegal firearm supply or possession), one focus group activity with four firearms enquiry officers, four imprisoned post-conviction offenders convicted of their involvement in illegal firearm supply, one ‘then’ Queens Counsel barrister. It also draws on data from correspondence with one other imprisoned post-conviction offender.
A thematic analysis of research data, paying specific attention to motivational factors, identified key themes alongside a range of attachments, attitudes and relationships individuals can develop towards firearms. The findings indicate that those involved in illegal firearm supply have been motivated by money, ideology, compromise and ego, often functioning in combination, alongside the psychological motivations of relationships and respect. Furthermore, the findings suggest the psychological motivations are an area of vulnerability, providing potential exploitation opportunities.
This thesis argues these motivational factors can be used to move beyond a single definition of criminal armourer. Suggesting three groups of armourer: the criminal, recreational/potential and opportunistic. Further differentiating the criminal armourer into six sub-groups: novice, professional, ideological, commercial, home conversion and innocent. Understanding these groups of armourers is important as there is potential to inform future practice by allowing officers to fully investigate each individuals’ specific role in the overall firearm supply process

Date of Award	Oct 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton
Supervisor	Craig Johnstone (Supervisor), Roxana Cavalcanti (Supervisor) & Peter Squires (Supervisor)