Scotland Yard launch anti-weapon drive against terror

Scotland Yard have launched a public drive against mass casualty weapons to counter threats of a terrorist attack in the United Kingdom and to stop both illegal and legal arms falling into the hands of terrorists.
Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police's national lead for counter-terrorism policing, said yesterday that five of the 10 plots uncovered in Britain in the past two years involved attempts to obtain explosives or firearms.
These terrorists were thwarted only because of tight gun laws in the country.
He explained: "You've got some very bright, determined, clear-thinking people who buy into and fully commit and are drivers of Daesh [Islamic State] propaganda and terrorism, and then you do get gang members, criminals, people who are already angry, difficult people causing problems in communities who perhaps get given a more clear purpose for their violence by a terrorist ideology, whether they pick that up on the streets or in prison.

"Those gang criminality links are an issue that concerns us and we have seen evidence of it potentially linking firearms into terrorism."
The public appeal, launched by the Met in conjunction with the National Crime Agency (NCA), is aimed at trying to stop both illegal and legal weapons falling into the hands of terrorists.

It is calling for people to tip off the authorities if they know someone trading illegal weapons or alert them to lax security around legally owned weapons.
"Currently we believe we hold an advantage. There is low availability of illegal firearms in the UK compared with European and international partners but it is not an advantage that we take for granted, and to maintain that advantage we must not stand still," NCA director-general Lynne Owens told 'The Times'.

There are thought to be thousands of illegal guns in circulation in Britain.
Last year the NCA sent 884 weapons to National Ballistics Intelligence Service for forensic analysis. The biggest fear is of a Paris-style attack, when gunmen fired indiscriminately at public venues last November killing more than 130 people.