This post was published over 700 days ago and therefore may not represent current Outside Context thinking or opinion. Please, do not let that detract from your enjoyment of it! 
Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri is one of the most distinctive radical Islamic figures in Britain.
Condemned by many Muslims as too extreme, the former Soho nightclub bouncer denies any involvement in terrorism.
But the 47-year-old has also defiantly justified the attacks in New York and Washington in September 2001.
This guy got sent to jail on Tuesday, rightly so, for being basically a terrorist leader and training terrorists. This I have no problem with whatsoever. Believe me he is, was and remains a very bad guy and not the sort of person who should be hogging all the headlines for the Muslims.
However, I then read in the Metro about the “terrorist stash” found in the mosque Hamza taught at. Amongst various DPM items and a diving knife, were these pistols:
I have read and heard these pistols referred to as “Blank firer’s” and the BBC news said “Of course, they could be converted to fire real bullets”.
This is a total lie and fabrication.
What are these pistols?
G2000 Repeater Air Pistol — Silver Chrome Finish Special silver chrome finish, squared trigger guard and custom grips set this air pistol apart from the rest. The 18-shot BB reservoir allows for repeat shooting or you can fire .177 calibre lead pellets, PLINKERS plastic indoor pellets, darts, or bolt single-shot
- Holds 18 metal bb shot
- Fires metal bb shot on repeat
- Fires .177 (4.5mm) pellets single shot
- Fires .177 (4.5mm) darts single shot
- Full heavy metal casing
- Safety catch. Special silver chrome finish
Price: £34.99 (Includes: VAT at 17.5%)Normally Ships within 14 Days
Basically, these guns are ultra cheap knock offs. They “fire” a small 4mm metal ball bearing about 15ft with enough power to perhaps pierce a cardboard box.
They are made of very cheap and nasty metal. The entire mechanism of the pistol is air based, so inside you will find a spring and a compression chamber from which a rush of air propels the Metal-BB forwards out of the barrel; none of the internals could be made to fire a bullet. You could never convert one of these pistols to fire a real bullet. The basic external shape is the same of a real pistol, but in no way would you EVER use such a cheap and nasty metal body to house real pistol internals as it would definitely blow up in the your hand when you tried to use it.
Now, you could try and upgrade the spring in the pistol to fire the metal-BB’s at a higher fps, but even that would likely break the gun immediately.
I used to own one of these when I was young and frankly I can vouch that they are completely useless.
It is a shame that the news media feel the need to fabricate such news to sensationalise the stuff found in the mosque. Hamza is a bad guy and I don’t know why he would want these pistols in the first place (my fevered imagination can come up with innumerable terror applications), but they are not something illegal and the inference form the news is wrong. They could never fire a bullet.
Basho
