Unlike the US, the UK has tight firearms and offensive weapons laws designed to prevent easy access to guns, stun guns, knuckledusters, bladed items and so on.
However, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered that Amazon UK is selling banned and dangerous weapons in contravention of the law, and will even cheerfully gift-wrap them for you.
The newspaper successfully managed to test-purchase three illegal items:
- A pistol that fires a jet of high-strength pepper spray at 112mph
- A 1m-volt stun gun disguised as a torch
- A baseball cap containing a hidden stabbing knuckleduster in its peak
While the stun gun and bladed baseball cap came from third-party sellers, the pepper spray pistol was sold directly by Amazon.co.uk and dispatched from the company’s warehouse just outside Milton Keynes.
The Guardian also found a large number of other illegal weaponry for sale on Amazon's UK site.
Upon being alerted to the presence of the items, Amazon removed them from its website immediately, and issued the following statement:
All [Amazon] sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don’t will be subject to action including potential removal of their account. The products in question are no longer available.
The retail giant didn’t comment on the fact it was the seller of the pepper spray gun.
Image Credit: Hadrian / Shutterstock
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