Enforcer Numbering - Another Observation...

[Alan de Enfield]

As one who has had to load up the letter plate on an old TH pantograph engraver many times, one identical to those used at Enfield, it just depends upon whoever loads the font into the engraving machine on that day.

Reading this thread I'm minded to ask whether D&C DID in fact guillotine their rifles but some wag, knowing this, has 'resurrected' the numbers, knowing the originals will never emerge. Just a thought..................

That is of course possible but I tend more towards the fact that the Police do not know what happened to them, or, perhaps more worrying, that they are deliberately misleading the public.

Here are the relevant answers from Devon & Cornwall Police :

4) By what method where any Enfield Enforcer rifles disposed of ? (i.e. destroyed, sold to the civilian market etc.)

Apart from the one remaining Enforcer mentioned in response to question 2, all were destroyed by Force guillotine as surplus stock.

5) What were the serial numbers of any Enfield Enforcer rifles that were destroyed?

The only records that could be located are details of the last four Enforcers to be destroyed as in question 4 above. In November 2004, serial No's 124, 139, 670 and 269 were destroyed by guillotine.

What leads me to believe that they actually have no idea what happened to them.

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Below is the answers to the same questions by the Sussex Police :

"However, upon speaking with the Force Armourer, he believes the weapon issued to police forces was in fact the Envoy (not Enforcer) made by the Small Arms Factory Enfield. Weapons held would have been destroyed as we are not permitted to sell police weapons to the public".

In fact the Enfield sale ledgers show that in fact Sussex Police purchased 8 Enforcers.

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The Met Police were a little more devious with their reply :

"Members of the criminal fraternity, who have requisite firearms knowledge, could use the information to 'clone' a police firearm. This could then be distributed within criminal gangs and used for committing serious armed offences. This could jeopardise the health and safety, or indeed the lives, of innocent members of the community and complicate any subsequent investigation.

Details of telescopic sights would reveal the tactical capability of that weapon".


Does it really matter what the tactical capability was of the Enforcer Scope 30 years after it was discontinued ?

Peter Laidler is obviously of the same mind as the 'Criminal Fraternity'