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MOD Issue Smoke grenade and flare seen at boot sale.

Falcon

Falcon

Well-Known Member
Recently, I saw a stall at a boot sale with a couple of MOD issue pyrotechnics for sale amongst regular household junk. They were A green smoke grenade and hand-launched illuminating flare. The seller was asking 10 each. I didn't buy them, but when I passed his stall again on the second trip round, he saw me and said that they had been sold.

What is the legality of selling these? I did tell the seller that as far as I knew they were illegal as they had Nato Stock Numbers on them. Of course they are also most likely stolen property. While similar civilian versions are available on the open market and legal to possess, I would think you some sort of license to sell them.

A little OT, This reminds me of something: Back in 2007, in my last few weeks of secondary school, rumours went round the school that the prom was going to be trashed. Paintball guns and smoke grenades were rumoured to have been procured by whoever was planning this. I wasn't going to bother going to the prom as I didn't have a date. In the end I thought that I had better go just in case this happened. Everyone in my year knew that I was into this sort of stuff, and I would have been immediately accused of involvement if it would have actually happened (which it didn't).
 
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Quite a few things to consider here -
1. The fact that an article bears a NSN doesnt make it unlawful to sell
2. Occasionally items destined for the military sector are made available to the public ( not at boot sales though!) - for example a contract over run of production
3. More likely is that the items were liberated by a serviceman. Pyrotechnics are rigorously accounted for in storage but away from the store in an excercise scenario they do regularly get "lost".
4. What would make the sale unlawful would be if the articles were assigned a number under the UN classification system that would require both seller and purchaser to be in possession of an explosives certificate under the Control of Explosives Regulations 1991. Some smoke grenades and some hand held rockets in military use would require certification in civilian hands.
 
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Not sure which green smoke grenade and hand held lauching flare Falcon refers too....but neither current items L68A1(grenade) nor the L12A2(para illum flare) carry a NATO stock number on them anyway.....both items are freely available from the manufactures without the L designation marked on them.

I would also like to ask a question about the 16mm pen launcher being section 1 firearms act...if you read the firearms act concerning these,it would seem they are....until you read the clause "unless used for signaling purposes" ????????


Cheers
Tony
 
smle2009 said:
Not sure which green smoke grenade and hand held lauching flare Falcon refers too....but neither current items L68A1(grenade) nor the L12A2(para illum flare) carry a NATO stock number on them anyway.....both items are freely available from the manufactures without the L designation marked on them.

I would also like to ask a question about the 16mm pen launcher being section 1 firearms act...if you read the firearms act concerning these,it would seem they are....until you read the clause "unless used for signaling purposes" ????????


Cheers
Tony
Click to expand...

I agree. It fits the description of a firearm but the last bit of the definition is there. Anyone had any PERSONAL experiences with Police regarding this?
 
Thanks for the replies. It was probably the UN number I was thinking of. I remember a discussion on here where it was said that "pyrotechnics with xxxx number on them are illegal for civillians".

To clarify, the flare was one of the self-contained tube flares, not a pen-type launcher.

The stolen property issue is what I was thinking could be more serious.
 
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