What Happens If You Get Caught With a Gun in the UK?

If you are caught with a gun in the UK, the consequences depend on what the weapon is and why you had it, but the floor is high: possessing a prohibited weapon such as a handgun carries a mandatory minimum of five years in prison for adults, and even an ordinary firearm held without a certificate can bring up to five years.¹ Judges can only sentence below the mandatory minimum in “exceptional circumstances,” and a guilty plea does not open that door.

What the Law Counts as a Firearm

The Firearms Act 1968 defines “firearm” more broadly than most people assume. It covers any lethal barrelled weapon and reaches individual component parts such as barrels, receivers, frames, and breech mechanisms, provided those parts could function in a lethal or prohibited weapon.² Being caught with a single receiver is treated the same as being caught with the complete gun.

Ammunition is a separate offence of its own under Section 1, even if you have nothing to fire it from.³ “Possession” is also wider than physical holding. A weapon stored at your home, left in your car, or kept anywhere else under your control is enough.

The Charges You Could Face

Firearms offences sit in a clear hierarchy, and the charge drives the sentence.

Possession Without a Certificate

Owning a firearm that needs a certificate when you do not have one is an offence under Section 1, as is buying ammunition without proper authorisation.³ Shotguns sit under Section 2 and need their own shotgun certificate; possessing one without the certificate is a standalone offence.⁴ The maximum sentence for a Section 1 possession offence is five years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.¹

Carrying a Firearm in Public

Taking a firearm into a public place without lawful authority or a reasonable excuse is a Section 19 offence even if you hold a valid certificate for it. The maximum is seven years.¹ “Reasonable excuse” is read narrowly. Moving a licensed shotgun in a proper case to a clay shooting range qualifies. Carrying a rifle in a backpack for personal protection does not.

Possession of a Prohibited Weapon

Section 5 lists weapons that are almost entirely banned for civilians: automatic weapons, certain self-loading and pump-action rifles, most handguns, and anything designed to discharge a noxious substance.⁵ Being caught with one of these without Home Secretary authority triggers the mandatory minimum sentence described below.

Firearms Linked to Intent

When a weapon is tied to a wider criminal purpose, sentences climb sharply. Possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence carries up to ten years.⁶ Possession with intent to endanger life is the most serious firearms charge and carries a potential life sentence.⁷ Neither charge requires the gun to have been fired. The prosecution proves intention through circumstantial evidence such as messages, witness accounts, or the surrounding situation.

Threatening someone with a realistic imitation firearm is prosecuted the same way, so the ten-year maximum applies regardless of whether the gun could actually fire.

The Five-Year Mandatory Minimum

The five-year mandatory minimum for prohibited weapons is one of the strictest sentencing rules in English and Welsh criminal law. It applies to first-time offenders just as it does to repeat offenders. A judge can only go below it on finding “exceptional circumstances” that would make five years unjust, and courts read that phrase very conservatively.¹

Pleading guilty early does not get you under the floor. Guilty-plea reductions of up to a third are normally available, but the sentencing guidelines expressly rule them out for the mandatory minimum on prohibited firearms.⁸ A plea can shorten a sentence that would otherwise exceed five years, but it cannot bring the final term below it. For offenders under eighteen, the mandatory minimum is three years’ detention.

Everyday Items That Trigger the Same Penalty

This part of the law catches many people off guard. Pepper spray, CS gas, and MACE are all classified as Section 5 prohibited weapons because they are designed to discharge a noxious substance.⁵ Stun guns and TASERs fall under the same provision. Bringing a pepper spray canister home from a holiday or buying a stun gun online places you in the same legal category as someone caught with an illegal handgun, and the same five-year mandatory minimum applies.

There is no self-defence exception. The fact that you only intended to protect yourself is not a defence to the possession charge, though a court can treat it as mitigation when deciding how far above the minimum to go.

What Pushes a Sentence Up or Down

Within the range for each offence, sentencing guidelines give a starting point that moves with the circumstances. Factors that typically increase a sentence include:

A more lethal or modified weapon.
Any link to organised crime, gang activity, or drug supply.
Multiple weapons or large quantities of ammunition, suggesting stockpiling.
Previous convictions, especially for firearms or violence.
Possession near a school, during a public event, or in a crowded place.

Factors that may reduce a sentence include:

Genuinely not knowing an inherited item was a prohibited weapon. Ignorance of the law itself is not a defence.
Very brief possession, particularly if you were on your way to surrender the weapon.
A clean criminal history, especially for non-prohibited weapon offences where the mandatory minimum does not apply.
Youth, mental health conditions, or coercion.

For prohibited weapon charges these same factors feed into the “exceptional circumstances” test. Courts have occasionally accepted arguments based on very brief possession combined with a genuine intention to hand the weapon to police, but successful departures from the five-year minimum are rare.

Consequences That Outlast the Sentence

A Firearms Ban After Release

Section 21 of the Firearms Act creates two tiers of prohibition on holding any firearm or ammunition after a prison sentence, for any offence at all. Anyone sentenced to three years or more is banned for life. Anyone sentenced to between three months and three years is banned for five years from the date of release, and the same five-year ban applies to suspended sentences of three months or more, running from the second day after sentencing. Breaching a Section 21 prohibition is itself an offence carrying up to five years’ imprisonment.⁹ A three-year sentence for fraud triggers the lifetime ban as surely as one for assault.

Deportation for Non-Citizens

A firearms conviction stacks severe immigration consequences on top of the criminal sentence. Under the UK Borders Act 2007 the Home Secretary has a duty to deport any foreign national sentenced to twelve months or more for a single offence, subject to a narrow set of exceptions.¹⁰ Because the mandatory minimum for prohibited weapons is five years, any non-citizen convicted of that offence will almost certainly face deportation proceedings. Government policy goes further for gun crime specifically: deportation on “conducive to the public good” grounds can be pursued for involvement in gun crime regardless of the length of sentence received, which can bring in offences that fall below the twelve-month automatic threshold.

If You Already Have an Unlicensed Gun

If you have found yourself with an unlicensed firearm, perhaps after inheriting one, finding one during a house move, or realising an item you own is classified as a prohibited weapon, surrender it before you are caught with it. Police forces periodically run gun surrender campaigns during which anyone handing in a firearm, ammunition, or imitation weapon will not be prosecuted for possession, and police have stated no questions will be asked about how you came to have it.¹¹

Outside those campaigns you can still arrange a handover. Call 101, the non-emergency police number, and explain the situation. Do not walk into a police station carrying the weapon, as arriving with a firearm can create a dangerous scene. Police will usually arrange collection or give you clear instructions for safe transport. Timing matters: if officers find the weapon before you make contact, the window for a voluntary surrender has closed, and prosecutors will treat the case very differently.

One jurisdictional point to keep in mind: Northern Ireland has its own firearms regime under the Firearms (Northern Ireland) Order 2004 rather than the 1968 Act, and a certificate from Great Britain does not carry across, and vice versa.¹²

1
Legislation.gov.uk. Firearms Act 1968
2
Legislation.gov.uk. Firearms Act 1968 – Section 57 – Interpretation
3
Legislation.gov.uk. Firearms Act 1968 – Section 1 – Requirement of Firearm Certificate
4
Legislation.gov.uk. Firearms Act 1968 – Section 2
5
Legislation.gov.uk. Firearms Act 1968 – Section 5 – Weapons Subject to General Prohibition
6
Legislation.gov.uk. Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 – Section 16A – Possession of Firearm With Intent to Cause Fear of Violence
7
Legislation.gov.uk. Firearms Act 1968 – Section 16
8
Sentencing Council. Reduction in Sentence for a Guilty Plea
9
Legislation.gov.uk. Firearms Act 1968 – Section 21
10
GOV.UK. Deportation on Conducive Grounds – Immigration Act 1971 and UK Borders Act 2007
11
Greater Manchester Police. Gun Surrender Initiative Aims to Prevent Crime and Save Lives
12
Legislation.gov.uk. The Firearms (Northern Ireland) Order 2004