Put yourself in Simon Berni’s shoes. You’re renovating your uncle’s home in Dinas Powys (Wales, outside Cardiff) when you come upon a stash of . . . guns! Behind a wall! In the UK no less! “There were eight shelves absolutely chock-a-block with firearms and ammunition. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I’d rather have found a big stack of money but it was still quite something. The guns obviously belonged to somebody who knew what they were doing as they were all greased and beautifully wrapped in newspaper.” Newspaper dated just after the Dunblane massacre. And the former owner of the home and the guns — thirty shotguns and at least four pistols — didn’t need the British equivalent of Willard Scott to see which way the wind was blowing . . .
Police think the guns had been unregistered and their owner hid them out of fear that they would be confiscated in the wake of the tragedy at the primary school where 16 children and one teacher were shot dead.
Whew. Good thing nothing like that could happen here.
But all’s well that end’s well, eh? That veritable arsenal of assault shotguns and military-style pistols is headed for the smelter where they belong. Kinda makes you wonder how many people on this side of the pond are doing a little sheetrock work in their own homes these last few weekends given the latest governmental efforts at civilian disarmament.
Say, is that plaster dust on your shoulder?
I learned about this a few days ago. I uploaded a small topic about this on Arm Britain.com.
Best of luck to you guys! I’m an American but a bunch of years back I spent a few months living up on Shetland. I met a lot of folks who were still not happy about giving up their firearms.
Thanks, there are still many in the UK today who think that our gun laws are too draconian. By the way, tell that b***h Feinstein that I said she can FOAD.
I know a few Londoners who once said to me (about gun rights), “Eventually you get over it and don’t really miss it”. To which I replied “How the hell can you not miss freedom?!?” Difference in culture between Texas and Britain I guess.. Nice to see that not all Brits have rolled over and become sheep!
Better food in Texas too.
@ Billy – it is cultural, but more accurately it is the difference in being raised as a subject and being raised a sovereign (citizen).
fckin’ narcs.
I can’t help but wince whenever I see things like this. It’s destroying history… And I think a few of those shotguns would count as art, too.
I was thinking the same thing. Probably more than a few of those guns are collector-grade antiques. Too bad they’re probably headed off somewhere to be melted down. =/
the browning auto 5 in captivity makes me cry.
This reminds me of the novel “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury.
“It was a pleasure to burn.”
That looks my dream find. That obedient British sheep reported it to the authorities. Two nations separated by a common language–and a whole lot more.
I know! Finding that stash would have instantly turned me into an unrepentant criminal.
But in a society like that, what can a guy really do? It’s not like you can really enjoy having them. Yet maybe someday they’ll recover from their collective lunacy, and then those things will be treated like the treasures they are.
You can sell most of them for ALOT of money and keep the choicest few for yourself to masterbate over like Gollum with his Ring of Power.
Moral of the story: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
That proverb counts for nephews and protege’s, too.
Hey, a Webley in .455. Those are like hen’s teeth these days.
That is so sad.
when i read that they will be destroyed, i almost cried.
I’m assuming the former owner died? Wouldn’t you have told a trusted son or friend on your deathbed about it?
“That long black cloud is comin’ down”
“The guns obviously belonged to somebody who knew what they were doing as they were all greased and beautifully wrapped in newspaper.”
…and not giving a damn about someone else’s respect for them, you went and had ’em destroyed. Good job, dickbag. Hope you’re proud of yourself for doing your “civic duty.”
Shocking, isn’t it, that this is the same country that endured the Battle of Britain and stood alone in Europe against a the fascist tide? Two generations later, they’re wetting themselves at the sight of a few ancient relics and trying to outlaw pointy objects. Simply pathetic.
Yep, and in the next war Britain will fall so quickly they won’t have time to finish their tea.
And if they issue a plea for Americans to send them guns to arm their civilians against invasion (like they did in WWII), my reply will be “and how many ounces of gold will you pay me for a gun?”
After we helped them win WWII, they took most of the donated American civilian firearms and buried them in cement or destroyed them. No more free rides – if they are willing to become a conquered people, that is their problem.
Dang. You could almost fight the Boer War with those.
Is that a Colt at the top of the image between the shotguns?
Looks like a 1911. In both world wars the Brits got handguns from the US. A large number of those 1911 for the brits were chambered for a .455 round to make supply easier on the Brits. These are rare guns nowadays. Of course it could also be the standard .45 acp. The Brits got those also.
Also looks like a cap and ball colt in the one photo. Could be a repro?
I’m shaking my head knowing all this could be historically valuable, but it’d be downright shameful if that cap and ball was an original Colt-Walker.
Jan, the trigger guard is square back. It could well be a 1st or 2nd model Dragoon or a copy of same.
Sinful waste.
wow, i just did the same thing, but with wasrs and tula tins. oh the irony.
Arms and ammunition. The definition of “durable goods”.
Needs no water, no food, no light, no source of power. Stored with a modicum of care, they will last more than a lifetime.
What’s that about “dry up the supply of these weapons over time.”?
He turned them in!?
When Newtown happened, a couple I know from Scotland (US citizens now) started freaking the fsck out with Dunblane flashbacks and everything. Especially the wife.
It’s unbelievable how effectively the disarmament forces exploited Dunblane to deeply embed fear and loathing of firearms into an entire generation of UK mothers. There is virtually no way to have a rational conversation with any of them regarding firearms.
It may not be kosher but, I’m kind of hoping this
guy gets robbed and assaulted just so he can ask
himself what may have happened differently if he
could have defended himself.
Of course considering the crime rate in Britain,
there’s a very real chance of this occurring.
The real irony is fairly good chance 1 or more of
those guns were used in either WWI or WWII
to defend Britain before there were enough
small arms to go around.
Oh good Lord, the horrors! Those evil devil spawns found hiding behind a wall! Just imagine how many innocent men, women and children they could have murdered had they not been held prisoner behind that wall for all of those years!
for each stash dutifully reported, there must be several safely guarded… Take heart.
He saved his firearms but when he died he was not a free man.
There is a Colt 1911, a Webly and I believe, a Colt Bisely!
I get the feeling this isn’t the stash of one man. Maybe he and his buddies got together and decided on one safe spot to keep their stuff from the grabbers.
Dublane was only 16 years ago, if it was more than two or three guys one of them is probably still alive, and not too happy.
“That veritable arsenal of assault shotguns and military-style pistols is headed for the smelter where they belong.”
Sadly, that’s probably where they’re going. It’s enough to make a grown man cry.
When it’s time to burry your guns it’s time to dig them up.
Gosh I sound like a bumper sticker…
Hope you don’t mind sir, but I intend to steal that.
Me too!
Most all of those are side-by-side shotguns. I’ll bet there’s the equivalent of quite a tidy pile of money sitting right there.
And the gun control lunatics are going to destroy them.
That is sad if they for go to the smelter. A Browning Auto 5, looks like a Model 12 Winchester, 1911 a Webley, Colt Walker?. Probably a lot more cool guns not shown in the pics. Glad the sun has finally set on that fascist empire.
A friend of mine who had been assigned to a NATO command in 1994 (during the D-Day anniversary), stated that a few French citizens he had become friends with had informed him they had fairly sizeable cache’s of WWII weapons “bricked-in.” I’m sure it happens.
I was witness to the proper responce to a very similar incident. My neighbor remodeled his house and found half of an 1894 in the wall. Years later he installed a sliding glass door and found the other half. He mentioned the find to an old timer who had lived in the house many years and many other owners previously. The responce, in a low drawl, “you don’t want to go digg’n up history”. End of conversation, the rifle went in a closet. The old timer has since passed on and the piece now rests above the dining room.
I really can not say what I would have done there. I do know if I ran across something like that here, assuming abandoned and no clear ownership, I would have loaded them up and shut the trunk, or rented a U-Haul. No idea what I would do with them tho. Well, ok, maybe a little.
The trouble is, in their situation what else can you do (besides reburying them)? You get caught with them, you go to jail. You get caught smuggling them out of the country, you go to jail. You sneak off into the countryside to shoot them, where are you going to get ammo? What’s left? Going into the closet, gently caressing them while moaning, “my precious…” all the while living in fear that someone may stumble onto your stash and, you go to jail. Then, Bob’s your uncle….
You are exactly correct. This is precisely what Obama and company want for the U.S. They will not be coming to your house. They just want them illegal. They 40 years from now, when you grandson or nephew finds them, he will gladly turn them in for an extra food ration.
He could buy ammo off the black market if he was that kind of person. We all know that it still exists over there.
Shows that despite gun bans people keep there guns. And by the way it doesn’t stop bad guys remember they uncovered a machine gun factory in London a couple of years ago.
Prof gun control is all bull crap.
From what I’ve heard about the UK he should be thankful they didn’t slap the cuffs on him and haul him away for “possessing” illegal firearms. I’d stick them back in the wall and keep my mouth shut.
The American Gestapo will be using dogs, wall and ground penetrating radar when it goes searching for legal guns to confiscate.
Funny, I buried them on a senators property!
damn… shed a tear for those weapons … they could have gone to a better home… some of them are antiques!!!!
I am reminded of the ubiquitous posters when I visited London in ’07. “SELF DEFENSE IS NO DEFENSE.”
Empire turned the UK full fascist and is doing the same to us.
‘I am reminded of the ubiquitous posters when I visited London in ’07. “SELF DEFENSE IS NO DEFENSE.”’
How very Orwellian.
If you take the time to build a hidden underground shooting range you can have fun shooting them. Keep the guns hidden elsewhere.
I CALLED IT!!! I posted some time ago how I belived that there were countless “dad’s army” Webleys and Enfields and everything else stored throught the UK under floorboards and burried in basements. This guy found a stash.
All I can say, is that if I was this guy, I would have re hung the drywall and no one would have been the wiser.
If we all stand pat for our rights to keep this from happening to us!
This the saddest thing I have read in a while. Yeah, sad that those wonderfully made rare quality firearms will be destroyed when they could better be placed in someone’s collection. But the saddest thing is what has happened to Great Britain. They ought to change the name of the country to Mediocre Britain to better reflect the current status of the country.
Sheep.
Dat Walker Colt.
«…the guns had been unregistered and their owner hid them out of fear that they would be confiscated…»
Does not compute. They weren’t registered. Possibly only the owner knew about them. He must have stored them away for another reason.
I had a .38 shoved into my face in London/Brighton while filming there for CBS in 1981. My sound man was with me. I talked the guy out of ripping us off and to put his pistol away. As a former Marine I was not nervous, but was surprised. I filmed the event, but CBS would not let it out.
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