Modifiers: A Snapshot of Convertible Firearms in Europe

'About half an hour before their shift was due to end, on 18 November 2005, Police Constable Sharon Beshenivsky and her colleague Police Constable Teresa Millburn responded to reports of an activated panic alarm at a travel agency in Bradford, West Yorkshire. As the two walked into the store, PC Beshenivsky was shot and killed at point-blank range.

The weapon used to kill PC Beshenivsky, and injure PC Millburn had been converted by Grant Wilkinson in a garden shed-cum-workshop behind an abandoned building in the quaint village of Three Mile Cross near Reading. Wilkinson is a self-taught gunsmith who legally bought imitation submachine guns under the guise of working in the movie industry, and then converted these into live-firing weapons. Police believe 90 guns were produced in his shed — used in over a fifth of shootings in London over a two-year period. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008...'

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