Preacherman
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From the Telegraph, London (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...unn31.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/31/ixhome.html):
Gangster, 19, 'killed himself by accident' with key fob gun
By Nigel Bunyan
(Filed: 31/03/2005)
A teenage gangster has become the first victim of a craze for miniature "designer" guns disguised as key fobs.
Fabian Flowers, 19, a member of Manchester's Longsight Crew, is believed to have shot himself in the head while trying to test the weapon's apparently faulty firing mechanism.
Friends who were with him immediately fled the lap-dancing club where the test firing took place.
The tiny gun - just over 4ins long and with a barrel extending a mere 1½ ins - has never been recovered.
Dozens of similar weapons have been smuggled into Britain from Bulgaria in the past 18 months. They are sold initially as novelty flare guns but then modified by criminals to fire twin .25 bullets.
The weapons, which change hands for several hundred pounds, are notoriously unstable and lack accuracy. However, at point-blank range they are lethal.
Early users were attracted to key fob guns because rivals did not recognise them as firearms, and many criminals regard them as fashion accessories.
The gun is cocked by pulling part of the key ring. Two buttons on the sides of the box-shaped fob are pressed to fire it, while a third opens it for reloading.
So far police have recovered 16 of the guns. All but two had been in the hands of Manchester drug gangs.
Last November police in the city issued a warning about their increasing popularity and made clear that any criminal caught with a key fob gun would face a minimum five-year prison sentence.
It is thought that at the time of Flowers's death he and his predominantly young gang were involved in a turf war with more established criminals.
On Feb 23 last year a group of youths, including some members of the Longsight Crew, were at the High Society club in Stockport.
At some point in the evening Flowers went to the lavatory with some of his friends. Police sources suggest someone had recently borrowed the key fob gun and was returning it.
An inquest yesterday heard that Flowers's final words to his friends were: "I'm going to put it to the test - watch."
One friend said: "He put it to his head and I heard a bang. I got the impression that he thought the safety catch was on and it was perfectly safe."
The gangster died from a single wound to the head. Police initially suspected he had been the victim of a gangland killing but became convinced that he had died at his own hand.
Flowers's family have rejected the police view of his death and maintain that he was indeed murdered.
After John Pollard, the South Manchester coroner, recorded an open verdict, Flowers's mother, Jackie Fetherston, repeated her assertion that his death was not an accident. "My son wouldn't put a gun to his head," she said.
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I did some further research on this, and found this article about another such gun in England. It contained the following photograph:
Wierd-looking thing, isn't it? - but at contact distance to the head, it seems to work!
Gangster, 19, 'killed himself by accident' with key fob gun
By Nigel Bunyan
(Filed: 31/03/2005)
A teenage gangster has become the first victim of a craze for miniature "designer" guns disguised as key fobs.
Fabian Flowers, 19, a member of Manchester's Longsight Crew, is believed to have shot himself in the head while trying to test the weapon's apparently faulty firing mechanism.
Friends who were with him immediately fled the lap-dancing club where the test firing took place.
The tiny gun - just over 4ins long and with a barrel extending a mere 1½ ins - has never been recovered.
Dozens of similar weapons have been smuggled into Britain from Bulgaria in the past 18 months. They are sold initially as novelty flare guns but then modified by criminals to fire twin .25 bullets.
The weapons, which change hands for several hundred pounds, are notoriously unstable and lack accuracy. However, at point-blank range they are lethal.
Early users were attracted to key fob guns because rivals did not recognise them as firearms, and many criminals regard them as fashion accessories.
The gun is cocked by pulling part of the key ring. Two buttons on the sides of the box-shaped fob are pressed to fire it, while a third opens it for reloading.
So far police have recovered 16 of the guns. All but two had been in the hands of Manchester drug gangs.
Last November police in the city issued a warning about their increasing popularity and made clear that any criminal caught with a key fob gun would face a minimum five-year prison sentence.
It is thought that at the time of Flowers's death he and his predominantly young gang were involved in a turf war with more established criminals.
On Feb 23 last year a group of youths, including some members of the Longsight Crew, were at the High Society club in Stockport.
At some point in the evening Flowers went to the lavatory with some of his friends. Police sources suggest someone had recently borrowed the key fob gun and was returning it.
An inquest yesterday heard that Flowers's final words to his friends were: "I'm going to put it to the test - watch."
One friend said: "He put it to his head and I heard a bang. I got the impression that he thought the safety catch was on and it was perfectly safe."
The gangster died from a single wound to the head. Police initially suspected he had been the victim of a gangland killing but became convinced that he had died at his own hand.
Flowers's family have rejected the police view of his death and maintain that he was indeed murdered.
After John Pollard, the South Manchester coroner, recorded an open verdict, Flowers's mother, Jackie Fetherston, repeated her assertion that his death was not an accident. "My son wouldn't put a gun to his head," she said.
____________________
I did some further research on this, and found this article about another such gun in England. It contained the following photograph:
Wierd-looking thing, isn't it? - but at contact distance to the head, it seems to work!
