“The potentially lethal weapons are often converted by criminals to fire real bullets, and can be bought easily in high-street shops and on websites.”

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT, over?

Sure, just like semiautos are “easily” converted to full-auto…at least in journalists’ imaginations, so why not BBs to bullet conversion. Next they’ll say AirSoft pistols can be readily converted, too.

An air pistol operating on compressed CO2 lacks, um, a firing pin. And aren’t most air pistols .177 cal or .22 cal at most? Why would you bother to convert one in such a puny caliber when a criminal could more easily acquire a real gun on the black market in the UK?