So I have a wealthy customer in the UK that has asked me for a particular handgun.  I know this is possibly a broad topic:  what do I need to know?  The gun will be an antique revolver in 44-40 or 45 colt.  Is this possible?  I am most particularly interested in the feasibility of owning such a gun, not in the particulars he must follow to acquire it, unless they are particularly onerous (such as he must own a firearms business etc.).  Please help.

Thanks!

Please read the sticky at the top of this forum on UK firearms and the following Government guidance on the law;

Old firearms which should not benefit from the exemption as antiques
8.12. Old firearms which should not benefit from the exemption as antiques are set out below. This list is not exhaustive and there may be other types and calibres of firearms that should be considered “modern” rather than “antique”:
(a) Shotguns and smooth-bored guns, including shot pistols, chambered for standard shotgun cartridges, .22 inch, .23 inch, 6mm and 9mm rimfire cartridges unless otherwise specified in the list of obsolete shotgun chamberings in Appendix 5.
(b) Rifles and handguns chambered for.22 inch, .23 inch, 6mm or 9mm rimfire ammunition;
(c) Revolvers, single-shot pistols and self-loading pistols which are chambered for, and will accept centrefire cartridges of the type .25, .30, .32, .38, .380, .44, .45, .450, .455 and .476 inch, or their metric equivalents including 6.35mm, 7.62mm, 7.63mm, 7.65mm, 8mm and 9mm, unless otherwise specified in the list in Appendix 5;
(d) Modern reproduction firearms or old firearms which have been modified to allow the use of shotgun cartridges or cartridges not listed in Appendix 5;
(e) Weapons extensively modified after 1939;
(f) Signalling pistols chambered for 1 and 1 ½ inch cartridges or 26.5mm/27mm cartridges;
(g) Pump-action and self-loading centrefire rifles, except those examples originally chambered for one of the obsolete cartridges listed at Appendix 5 and retaining their original chamberings. The latter may benefit from an exemption as antiques under section 58(2) of the 1968 Act (as amended).

Section 7: Firearms of historic interest:
(1) The authority of the Secretary of State or the Scottish Ministers (by virtue of provision made under section 63 of the Scotland Act 1998) is not required by virtue of subsection (1) (aba) of section 5 of the 1968 Act for a person to have in his possession, or to purchase or acquire, or to sell or transfer, a firearm which-
(a) was manufactured before 1 January 1919; and
(b) is of a description specified under subsection (2) below,
if he is authorised by a firearm certificate to have a firearm in his possession, or to purchase or acquire it, subject to a condition that he does so only for the purpose of its being kept or exhibited as part of a collection.
(2) The Secretary of State may by order made by Statutory Instrument specify a description of firearm for the purposes of subsection (1) above if it appears to him that –
(a) firearms of that description were manufactured before 1 January 1919 and;
(b) ammunition for firearms of that type is not readily available.
(3) The authority of the Secretary of State or the Scottish Ministers (by virtue of provision made under section 63 of the Scotland Act 1998) is not required by virtue of subsection 1(aba) of section 5 of the 1968 Act for a person to have in his possession, or to purchase or acquire, or to sell or transfer, a firearm which:
(a) is of particular rarity, aesthetic quality or technical interest; or
(b) is of historical importance.
if he is authorised by a firearm certificate to have the firearm in his possession subject to a condition requiring it to be kept and used only at a place designated for the purposes of this subsection by the Secretary of State or the Scottish Ministers (by virtue of provision made under section 63 of the Scotland Act 1998).
(4) This section has effect without prejudice to section 58(2) of the 1968 Act (antique firearms).
9.5. In broad terms, section 7 divides historic handguns, other than antiques and muzzle-loaders, into two classes: those which may be kept at home without ammunition, and those which may be kept and fired at a designated secure site.
9.6. Set out below is an explanation of how the terms of section 7 might apply in practice:
Historic handguns which might be kept at home
9.7. The police may grant a firearm certificate for a firearm to be kept at home (as opposed to at a designated site) under the terms of section 7(1) if the normal criteria for the grant of a certificate are satisfied and if the firearm meets all of three tests:
(i) it must be of a kind for which the Secretary of State has decided that ammunition is not readily available in the UK;
(ii) the actual gun (not just the make or model) must have been manufactured before 1 January 1919; and
(iii) the certificate must be subject to a condition that the gun must be kept or exhibited as part of a collection.
9.8. Section 7(2) gives the Secretary of State the power to list by Statutory Instrument those firearms to which section 7(1)(b) applies and therefore do not require an authority from the Secretary of State or Scottish Ministers. These represent both those cartridges used in rifles and carbines which can be purchased lawfully, and those calibres in common international circulation which are regularly used in crime in the UK. The Statutory Instrument states that the following types of firearm are subject to section 7(1):
9.9. All small firearms as defined by section 5(1)(aba) of the Firearms Act 1968 (small firearms) except those chambered for the following types of ammunition. These are set out in The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 (Firearms of Historic Interest) Order 1997 (Statutory instrument 1997/1537) as follows:
• 22” rimfire
• .25” Auto colt pistol/6.35mm
• .25” – 20
• .32” Auto colt pistol/7.65mm• .32” – 20 • .32” Smith & Wesson Long• 7.62mm Soviet Tokarev • .38” 40 Winchester• .380 Auto colt pistol/9mm short• 9mm Luger/Parabellum/9x19mm• .38 Smith & Wesson• .38” Special• .38-200• .44” Special• .44” – 40 Winchester• .45 Auto colt pistol • .45” Long Colt
9.10. This is a statutory provision, and any gun chambered for the above types of ammunition cannot benefit from the provisions of section 7(1) and (2). The police have no power to waive the terms of the Statutory Instrument and allow firearms of these chamberings to be kept at home. Likewise, further ammunition can only be declared “readily available” by the Secretary of State. Handguns covered by the list would include, for example, the Browning Models 1900, 1906 and 1910, the Colt 1917 in .45” ACP, the Mauser c96 in 9mm Parabellum, the P08 Luger in 9mm, and the Webley 1906 as the ammunition for these may be available. However, guns of these types might benefit from the terms of section 7(3).
9.11. As well as being a type for which ammunition is not readily available, the individual gun
(not just the make or model) must have been manufactured before 1 January 1919. This date was chosen to include both guns of the First World War era and the work of the smaller gunsmiths in the UK or abroad who ceased production before or during the Great War. This is a statutory requirement, and the police cannot grant a firearm certificate for a pistol made after this date to be kept at home under section 7(1). The police will therefore wish to be satisfied that the gun falls within this category.


So I guess it's no

Do not pass go, do not collect £200 and go directly to jail.

The problem is that the law in the UK on antiques is a bit vague, so it either isn't licensed under section 58(2) or it is under section 7(1) of the 1997 Act.

In many cases, either can be used and there is a fair bit of caselaw on it.

If it's an antique under US law because it's pre-1898 and it could be an antique under section 58(2) theoretically it's legal to just stick it in the mail.  Whether UK CBP agrees is something the recipient would be liable for.

The current view seems to be that CPS has given up prosecutions because they often lose, especially after this case.

It helps if the calibre is considered "obsolete" but there's no actual law that says that.  It has to be on a certain list of calibres to be licensed under section 7(1) but clearly in the case cited he had a 7.65mm Luger (which is on the list of obsolete calibres) without a certificate and was found not guilty.  There's a case of someone having an antique .22 rifle who was also found not guilty, clearly not an obsolete calibre.