MovieChat Forums > Survivors (1975) Discussion > Where did all the guns come from?

Where did all the guns come from?

posted 11 years ago by skelk
8 replies | jump to latest

Were gun licensing laws in the 70's much laxer than today? I appreciate that the few survivors left meant more to go around, but pretty much every survivor had managed to find a gun or two and plenty of ammunition to keep them going long after all of the foodstuffs were gone (the latter which you'd expect to be in much larger supply). In America I'd expect to see guns everywhere but not in the UK? Whilst I suspect most people will know someone who has a license so they could lay hands on one at a pinch, they'd still be short on ammo after a while and it would be simply a prop.

[–] timlin-4 11 years ago

They were in the country estates where I imagine hunting weapons wouldn't be rare, and probably still aren't (the elite make the law for others to follow). Of course there are massive police and government stockpiles being built up while the people are being disarmed, so a collapse would be much more fun than this hippie show depicts

[–] Jefbecco-1 10 years ago

I don't see where this is a "hippie show". Reflection of the time yes, but there really isn't a counter-culture vibe. Well at least in my opinion.

[–] anonreviewer 10 years ago

they may have been replicas....you have to be connected to get a real gun..or so I hear....
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[–] Newsgroupie 10 years ago

While you are correct that they may have been replicas, it would have been for safety reasons, not that it's difficult to secure firearms in England. Certain rifles can be had in any caliber, and certain shotguns can be had in any number, but each rifle or shotgun has to have a certificate. handguns on the other hand are mostly illegal. You can do a search for information, and Wiki has several pages devoted to the gun restrictions in different parts of the UK.

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[–] Darth_Ferior 10 years ago

Gun laws were laxer in the UK prior the Hungerford Massacre.
It was explained in the series where the guns came from, early in the third episode "Gone Away", you see Tom Price wandering onto a farm, break open a locked cabinet, and there was a shotgun inside. No doubt Arthur Wormley's mob searched every farm in their area and stockpiled as many guns as they could to keep order, until Tom stole a load of them, which ended up at the Grange.
As for Season 2, Kane must have taken his collection of shotguns off the people he murdered between the prison and the canal.

[–] Unicorn-9 9 years ago

In those days, pretty much every country town would have had a gun store. You could probably outfit every survivor in the country with a shotgun or rifle--and enough ammunition to last for years--from those stocks. If I'd been one of those survivors, I'd have been armed to the teeth within a couple of days.

Also, Britain was (is?) a major arms exporter, so military weapons wouldn't be hard to find. I remember gun store ads for RPGs, machineguns and similar weapons in the 80s.

[–] hughwm 9 years ago

Also, there would have been large military and police stockpiles of weapons. With most personnel dead, it would have been fairly easy to eventually get access to them. I seem to recall as the series goes on, we see more pistols and rifles being used in addition to shotguns, which bears this theory out.

Prior to the Hungerford massacre, a lot of police stations just kept a few Enfield revolvers in a safe, which were issued to officers when required. In my school in the 1980s we had a large store of Lee Enfield rifles and Bren guns used by the cadet corps and most British boarding schools would have had the same. There were probably quite a few Enfield and Webley army issue revolvers kept by ex-army officers as well, 'under the radar.'

So it would have been fairly easy to get firearms once all law and order had broken down.

[–] steve-thomas135 8 years ago

Dint you know? Everyone and his mum is packin heat in the country.?