Another Constable

On my last shift I swore out my very first warrant. It was exciting to do something new. I had received very reliable information about a person keeping a handgun in the bedroom “for their own protection”. I took a statement to give me some sound evidence, then went off to see the DI (Detective Inspector) to see what he thought. Straight firearms warrant was the reply. After liasing with the FIM (aforementioned Force Incident Manager) who in turn spoke to the TAC-AD (Tactical Advisor) it was deemed safe enough for area officers (i.e. us) to execute a warrant without the requirement of a firearms team.

So, I got together the paperwork and wrote out my first warrant application. My colleague rang a local magistrate at home (it was a Bank Holiday so we couldn’t go to court as they weren’t open - we have to call around to the magistrates house and disturb their dinner!) and off we went to see him.

The Magistrate was a very nice chap. I had to swear an oath on the Bible, and then go through the information I had received with him. He asked me a few questions about the information and how I was going to act with the warrant, and duly signed it off. Next it was off to chummy’s house to execute the warrant. Chummy was also a nice guy, invited us in, then showed me the packaging for the firearm. It was a BB (ball bearing) gun. I searched anyway, found the gun in question, and a quick chat with the firearms department chatting about the specification of the gun, and we determined that it was perfectly legally held, and that there were no offences.

Worringly though, there are plenty of kids knocking around with BB guns these days. This looked very realistic. It was a Walther PPK replica, the only giveaway being the “dial” at the bottom of the stock.

If kids are going to carry this sort of thing around on the streets (and they will) then they are very likely to wind up dead at the hands of an armed police officer who has a split second to deicde if the weapon they are facing are real or not.