Death of former York firearms dealer

12:20pm Monday 17th November 2008

AN INQUEST will be held this week into the death of a former York firearms dealer, who is understood to have been found at his home suffering from shotgun wounds.

Jeremy Fox, 68, who strongly supported the right of householders to own guns to protect their properties from burglars, died at his semi-detached house in Malton Avenue, off Heworth Green.

Police said today his death was “not suspicious” but declined to release more information prior to the inquest, which will be held this Thursday at New Earswick Folk Hall, other than to say he was pronounced dead at his home on the afternoon of August 19.

Mr Fox was involved for more than 30 years in a family business, Hooks of Coppergate, and held a firearms certificate and dealers’ licence until it was sold in April 1988.

The Press reported in 1989 how Mr Fox, a Rowntree worker, was taken to court after police broke into his flat and found weapons and ammunition scattered throughout the premises.

York magistrates heard that some of them had come into his possession during a nationwide firearms amnesty, when many people were reluctant to give guns to the police.

He admitted having in his possession a large quantity of firearms and ammunition without a certificate and was given a three month prison sentence, suspended for a year. The court heard he had overlooked the fact that his dealers’ licence had expired when the shop closed. Many weapons were not in working order. Magistrates said it was a “very serious” offence and ordered the forfeiture of the weapons and ammunition.

Mr Fox regularly wrote to The Press, and in several letters called for liberalization of the gun laws.

In 2006, he wrote to say the law should be changed so that citizens could use guns to protect their loved ones and property, adding: “Then I, and many others, could strive to make the housebreaker an endangered species.”

In 2007, he wrote to say that many states in America allowed the law-abiding to carry concealed weapons with which to defend themselves. “Criminals will continue to rule our lives until we get real protection or are allowed to protect ourselves,” he said.

Earlier this year, after two children at a York primary school were hit by a soft airgun, he said that all replicas, soft airguns, deactivated guns and proper airguns produced today were nowhere near as lethal as the humblest kitchen knife, to which every child had access. “So shall we get rid of the knives from schools first before we start getting hysterical about these guns?”

He also wrote: “As a former firearms dealer I know children I would trust with firearms and adults who I would not. I had a licensed service rifle when I was 16: 303 ammunition was plentiful and free and I kept the gun propped in a corner at home. It never caused a problem.”

The Press made extensive, but unsuccessful, efforts to contact Mr Fox’s family for comment.