The Firearms (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Order 1989

Prohibited weapons and ammunition

3.—(1) Article 6 of the principal Order shall have effect with the amendments made by paragraphs (2) and (3) the purpose of which is to extend the class of prohibited weapons and ammunition, that is to say weapons and ammunition the possession, purchase, acquisition, manufacture, sale or transfer of which requires the authority of the Secretary of State.

(2) In paragraph (1) of that Article, for sub-paragraph (a) there shall be substituted the following sub-paragraphs—

“(a) any firearm which is so designed or adapted that two or more missiles can be successively discharged without repeated pressure on the trigger;

(ab) any self-loading or pump-action rifle other than one which is chambered for .22 rim-fire cartridges;

(ac) any self-loading or pump-action smooth-bore gun which is not chambered for .22 rim-fire cartridges and either has a barrel less than twenty-four inches in length or (excluding any detachable, folding, retractable or other movable butt-stock) is less than forty inches in length overall;

(ad) any smooth-bore revolver gun other than one which is chambered for 9mm. rim-fire cartridges or loaded at the muzzle end of each chamber;

(ae) any rocket launcher, or any mortar, for projecting a stabilised missile, other than a launcher or mortar designed for line-throwing or pyrotechnic purposes or as signalling apparatus;”.

(3) For sub-paragraph (c) of that paragraph there shall be substituted the following sub-paragraph—

“(c) any cartridge with a bullet designed to explode on or immediately before impact, any ammunition containing or designed or adapted to contain any such noxious thing as is mentioned in sub-paragraph (b) and, if capable of being used with a firearm of any description, any grenade, bomb (or other like missile), or rocket or shell designed to explode as aforesaid,”.

(4) In Article 2(2) of the principal Order (interpretation), after the definition of “registered” there shall be inserted the following definitions—

““revolver”, in relation to a smooth-bore gun, means a gun containing a series of chambers which revolve when the gun is fired;

“self-loading” and “pump-action” in relation to any weapon mean respectively that it is designed or adapted (otherwise than as mentioned in Article 6(1)(a)) so that it is automatically re-loaded or that it is so designed or adapted that it is re-loaded by the manual operation of the fore-end or forestock of the weapon;.”

(5) In Article 13(2) of the principal Order (exemption for theatrical, etc. performances)—

(a) for the words “firearm such as is described in Article 6(1)(a)” there shall be substituted the words “prohibited weapon”; and

(b) for the words “the firearm” there shall be substituted the words “the weapon”.