United Kingdom
Permanent URL for this collectionhttps://dspace.firearmsresearchcenter.org/id/frc0001/5443
United Kingdom
This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to the United Kingdom. It supports research on firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from the early modern period through the present.
- Legal sources: Acts of Parliament, Statutory Instruments, Home Office circulars and guidance, appellate case law, and select local bylaws.
- Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, Board of Ordnance and War Office records, proof house registers (London and Birmingham), manufacturer archives (e.g., Enfield, BSA, Webley), and oral histories tied to UK people and places.
- Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the UK.
Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.
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Item type:Item, Laws of King Alfred the Great, A.D. Cir. 890, Cap. 38(890)Prohibited fighting, drawing weapons at meetings in the presence of an alderman of the King. Violators fined one hundred and twenty shillings. Violators in the presence of an official subordinate of the alderman are fined thirty shillings.Item type:Item, William Blackstone, 1 Commentaries on the Laws of England 104 (1847)(1765)Discussed "the fifth and last auxiliary right", that Englishmen shall have arms for their defence. "Suitable to their condition and degree, and such as are allowed by law.Item type:Item, Item type:Item, 12 Rich. 2, ch. 6 (1388)(1388)Prohibited possession of a sword or dagger by servants unless accompanied by their master.Item type:Item, F. L. Attenborough, The Laws of the Earliest English Kings 6-7 (1922) (Transcription and translation of the Textus Roffensis,1 the Laws of Æthelberht, no. 18)(602)Prohibited supplying another with weapons while a quarrel is taking place. If no injury takes place, the lender shall pay a fine of six shillings.Item type:Item, 2 Edw. 3, c. 3 (1328)(1328)Statute of Northampton; forbade any person to come before the King's justices or ministers "with force and arms," "nor bring no force in affray of the peace, nor to go nor ride armed" in fairs, markets, before the justices and ministers, "nor in no part elsewhere?."Item type:Item, 20 Rich. 2, ch. 1 (1396)(1396)Prohibited possession of launcegays. Punished by forfeiture of the weapon.Item type:Item, 22 & 23 Car. 2, c. 25 (1671)(1671)Prohibited any person "not having Lands and Tenements of the clear yearly value of One hundred pounds" from firearm possession.Item type:Item, English Bill of Rights of 1689, 1 W. & M, c. 2,§ 6(1689)Provided a right for Protestants to have "Arms for their Defense . . . as allowed by law."Item type:Item, English Bill of Rights of 1689, 1 W. & M. c. 2,§ 7(1689)Provided a right for Protestants to have "Arms for their Defense . . . as allowed by law."Item type:Item, An Act for the Better Securing the Government by Disarming Papists and Reputed Papists, 1 W. & M., Sess. 1, ch. 15 (1688)(1689)An Act for the Better Securing the Government by Disarming Papists and Reputed Papists: Prohibition on Catholics from possessing firearms and ammunition unless an oath renouncing their faith was taken.Item type:Item, 14 Car. 2, c.3 (1662)(1662)Ordered deputy lieutenants to seize arms from any person "judge[d] dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom."Item type:Item, 4 Jac. I, ch. 1 (1606)(1606)Repealed exemption for subjects living with 12 miles of the Scottish border for the keeping of crossbows, handguns, and demy hakes.Item type:Item, 7 Rich. 2, ch. 13 (1383)(1383)Prohibited possession of launcegays. Punished by forfeiture of the weapon.Item type:Item, Calendar of the Close Rolls, Edw. 1, 1296-1302, at 318 (Sept. 15, 1299)(1299)Order to all sheriffs of England. Prohibited anyone from "going armed" within the realm without the king's special license.Item type:Item, 8 Stat. at Large, from the Twelfth Year of Queen Anne, to the Fifth Year of King George I: To which Is Prefixed, a Table Containing the Titles of all the Statutes During that Period 306–07 (Danby Pickering ed. 1764)(1716)CAP. LIV-An Act for the more effectual securing the Peace of the Highlands in Scotland, Enacted November 1, 1716 (anno primo Georgii I): Prohibited any person within the Scottish Highlands from possession any broad sword, target, poynard, whingar, durk, side-pistol or side-pistols, or gun, or any other warlike weapons. Violators shall forfeit such arms and fined not less than five nor more than forty pounds sterling, and imprisoned until such fine is paid.Item type:Item, 26 Hen. 8, c. 6,§ 4 (1534)(1534)Prohibited Welsh residents or lords from bearing any bill, longbow, crossbow, handgun, sword, staff, dagger, halberd, morespike, spear, or any other manner of weapon into sessions, court, town, church, fair, market, other congregation, or on the highways in affray of the King's peace or the King's liege people. Violators punished with imprisonment and fine.Item type:Item, 2 Stat. at Large, from the Fifteenth Year of King Edward III to the Thirteenth Year of King Hen. IV, inclusive, at 253 (Danby Pickering ed., 1762)(1400)Cap. XXIX-Certain Restraints Laid on Wholly Born Welshmen. Passed 1400 (anno secundo Henrici IV): Prohibited Welshmen from bearing any armour with cities, boroughs, or merchant towns. Violators forfeit said armour and imprisoned until a fine is paid on their behalf.Item type:Item, 33 Hen. 8, ch. 6 (1541)(1541)1, 2, 18: Prohibited possession of any crossbow, handgun, hagbutt, or demy hake. Exempted subjects living within 12 miles of the Scottish border. Punishable by forfeiture or payment of 10 pounds.Item type:Item, 8 Stat. at Large, from the Twelfth Year of King Charles II, to the Last Year of King James II 40 (Danby Pickering ed. 1763)(1662)1662 Militia Act: Ordered the king's agents to search for and seize all arms in the custody or possession of any person "judge[ d] dangerous to the peace of the kingdom."Item type:Item, 9 Geo. 1, c. 22 (1723)(1723)An act for the more effectual punishing wicked and evil-disposed persons going armed in disguise, and doing injuries and violences to the persons and properties of his Majesty's subjects, and for the more speedy bringing the offenders to justice: Prohibited anyone going armed with sword, fire-arms, or other offensive weapons while having their faces blacked or disguised in any forest, chase, park, paddock, grounds inclosed with any wall, pale, or fence? or in any high road, open heath, common or down, or to wilfully hunt unlawfully. Violators guilty of a felony, and shall suffer death.Item type:Item, Statutory Crime of Affray, 25 Edw. 3, stat. 5, c. 2,§ 13 (1350)(1350)Prohibited riding armed against another with the intent to flay him, rob him, or take him, or retain him until fine or ransom is paid. Violators guilty of felony or trespass, but not treason.Item type:Item, Royal Proclamation as to the Wearing of arms in the City, and at Westminster; and as to Playing at games in the Palace of Westminster, in Memorials of London and London Life, and life in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth Centuries 268 (H.T. Riley ed., 1868)(1351)Prohibited being "armed with haketons, with [armor] plates, with swords, and with long daggers, and with other manner of arms;" because "by reason whereof the business of our Lord the King and of his realm has both been impeded, and the great people and others who have come there, by command of the King, have been alarmed thereat..."Item type:Item, A Proclamation Against Steelets, Pocket Daggers, Pocket Dagges and Pistols (R. Barker printer, 1616).(1616)Banned the wear, carry, manufacturer, or sale of steelets, pocket daggers, pocket daggs, & pistols.Item type:Item, 1 Dictionary of the English Language 106 (4th ed.) (reprinted 1978)(1773)Used by the Court to define arms as weapons of offence, or armour of defence.Item type:Item, Item type:Item, 41 Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time 1649(1820)"Any pike, pike head or spear in the possession of any person or in any house or place..." was subject to confiscation. Yet "any dirk, dagger, pistol or gun or other weapon" was to be seized if it was for "any purpose dangerous to the public peace..."Item type:Item, 13 Edw. 1, c. 102(1285)Restricted the carrying of swords, bucklers, and other arms after curfew in the City of London.Item type:Item, 4 Hen 4, c. 29 (1403)(1403)Prohibited the use of armor or arms in sensitive places by people not allowed by the King.Item type:Item, 60 Geo. III, c. 2 at Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, 41:1647-52.(1820)authorized judges "to arrest and detain any person carrying arms in such manner and at such times as, in the judgment of such magistrate, to afford just grounds of suspicion that the same are carried for purposes dangerous to the public peace?"Item type:Item, 13 Edward 1, c. 6 (1285), in 1 Statutes of the Realm 97-98 (1800).(1285)Required all males aged fifteen to sixty in certain income groups to have at least particular quantities of arms and armor.Item type:Item, 1 W. & M., Sess. 1, ch. 15; see also 4 Commentaries on the Laws of England 55 (1769)(1689)An Act for the Better Securing the Government by Disarming Papists and Reputed Papists: An Act for the Better Securing the Government by Disarming Papists and Reputed Papists: Prohibition on Catholics from possessing firearms and ammunition unless an oath renouncing their faith was taken. Catholics who did not attend Church of England services could not keep arms within their home. Used by the Court to define "keeping arms" as outside of militia service.Item type:Item, Laws of King Alfred the Great, A.D. Cir. 890, Cap. 7(890)Prohibited fighting in the King's Hall or drawing weapons. Violators may be put to death by the King. Violators who escape may be punished and fined according "to the nature of the outrage he has perpetrated.