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Desperate Birmingham crooks are using antique, century-old pistols, say forensic experts leading the fight against gun crime.

Scientists at a secret Birmingham lab tracking the use of firearms across the country have told the Mail the use of modified Baikal gas-powered guns is decreasing.

Criminals are instead relying on plundered war trophies and collectible weapons, sometimes more than 100 years old.

The “shared” firearms have become the weapon of choice for crooks as modern weapons become more expensive and harder to get hold of.

During the 2011 Birmingham riots a St Etienne revolver - used by the French military in 1892 - was fired at the West Midlands Police helicopter outside the Barton Arms, Newtown.

And there has been an increase in the use of early 20th century weapons like the US Colt revolver, World War One German Luger and Browning 9mm handgun.

The National Ballistic Intelligence Service (Nabis) was launched in 2008 and analyses every bullet, gun or piece of ballistic material recovered by UK police.

Every gun barrel has a unique marking or ‘fingerprint’ which is transferred on to bullets and allows scientists to match weapons and ammunition.

Some guns have been linked to more than a dozen crimes across the country and have even resurfaced after disappearing for 11 years.

Just last month Nabis was able to link a Mac 10 submachine gun used in the London murder of an innocent young mum to two shootings in the West Midlands.

Martin Parker, lead scientist at the Birmingham hub, said: “When Nabis started in 2008 the most common gun recovered was the Russsian-built Baical.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that around 80 per cent of serious gun crime featured the modified gas-powered Baical at that time.

“We still see them, but the usage has dropped off.

“In the last two years we have seen quite a lot of antique weapons. It’s now principally late 19th century military revolvers that are used in crime. It’s an issue that is very specific to the Midlands and London.

“And it’s a trend that suggests the more modern weaponry is either not available to criminals or is particularly expensive.

“In the culture we live in people are used to throwing things away and updating items. But what we know is that these weapons work just as well as when they rolled off the production line more than 100 years ago.

“For example, the Colt 1911, which was designed in 1905, is still one of the most popular handguns in the US.

“I remember examining one years ago that had been pulled from a river bed. I cleaned it up and was able to fire eight rounds with no problem.”

Ballistic material from any shooting is sent in to one of four Nabis labs in Birmingham, Manchester, London or Glasgow.

They test fire all the weapons in a purpose built firing range and all of the material is fed into a system called the Integrated ballistic identification system (IBIS).

Every piece of material from every crime scene since 2002 is held on the system, which brings up links.

A scientist then evaluates the results and an intelligence cell collates all the information and passes it on to the police forces involved.

Martin added: “Firearms always leave unique markings on the inside of the barrel and those markings are transferred onto the bullets when they are fired.

“It is sometimes referred to as a firearm’s ‘finger-print’.

“Each one is unique and there is no way that it can be hidden. Because of this, we know in the UK that there are a small number of guns used by criminals.

“We have a very good idea of the total numbers and it’s probably much lower than in any other country in the world.

“When a weapon is used for the first time we create an inferred gun, so that we know there is a new gun out there.

“Even without the gun we can usually say exactly what type of weapon it is, just from the ballistic materials.”

Nabis are also liaising with European partners and sharing intelligence.

Martin added: “There are instances where weapons have resurfaced after five, six, or seven years. They have dropped out of the system and disappeared.

“We had one case where two guns were used in 2011 in Manchester which had been used 11 years before in London.

“Sometimes criminals hang on to guns for a long time. And we also know that some weapons have been used more than 10 times and sometimes in different parts of the country as well.

“Weapons that have even been used in murders have been reused again.”

• It emerged last month that a Mac 10 submachine gun used by three drug dealers to murder an innocent young mum in London had been linked by Nabis to two shootings in the West Midlands.

Hassan Hussain, Yasin James and Martell Warren were found guilty of murdering Sabrina Moss and the attempted murder of her friend Sabrina Gachette, 25, following a trial at the Old Bailey.

Nursery school teacher Sabrina had been out celebrating her 24th birthday when she and her friend were gunned down by the gang using the Mac 10 and a shotgun in the early hours of Saturday, August 23, last year.

The women were not the intended targets but were sheltering from the rain with a group of about 15 others in north west London.

Regardless, Hussain fired the Mac 10 “spray and pray” machine gun six times and James fired both barrels of the shotgun at near point blank range before fleeing in a car driven by Warren.

The Mac 10 gun, which shoots more than a thousand rounds a minute, was the same type of weapon used in the 2003 New Year shootings of Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis.

Although the exact reason for the London shooting is unclear, it was connected to a drug-dealing turf war and deep-seated animosity with members of the South Kilburn Gang.

Police said the Mac 10 gun which killed Sabrina had been used before in the Birmingham in 2008 and 2009 and twice in London in 2012.

The first incident saw the recovery of ballistic material during the sweep of an area around Trinity Road, Aston, where two weapons were used in a shooting.

Material from the Mac 10 was recovered in a nearby alley and it’s believed the weapon had previously been test-fired in the area.

The second incident was at a petrol station in October, 2009. The same weapon was fired at a Mercedes car on a petrol station forecourt in Witton Road, but nobody was in the vehicle and nobody injured.

Hussain, 29, of Willesden; Warren, 23, from Kensal Green; and James, 20, from Wembley, were also found guilty of the attempted murder of Mahad Ahmed and Edson Da’Silva, possession of a Mac 10 machine gun with intent to endanger life and possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life.

• West Midlands Police revealed in August that 131 deadly firearms were taken out of circulation during a two-week gun surrender scheme.

The haul included World War One Luger handguns and even a 19th century pistol which probably saw service during the Napoleonic Wars.

Det Insp Andy Bannister hailed the scheme a potentially life-saving success and added: “The problem of antique weapons being used in crime is an emerging threat we’re addressing.”

The number of fatal shootings in the West Midlands has decreased in the last decade.

There were 17 fatal shootings in the five years between 2004 and 2009 but that fell to nine between 2009 and 2014.