Coroner urges ban on 'DIY gun' information to be fast tracked - as called for by NCA two years ago - after teen killed himself with one

A CORONER has called for a proposed law banning information about homemade firearms to be urgently brought into force after a teenager ended his life with one.

Owen Donnelly, 19, took his own life with a homemade improvised gun, at his Wigan home, Timothy Brennand, HM Senior Coroner, for Greater Manchester West, concluded after an inquest at Bolton Coroner’s Court this month.

Yet, Mr Brennand highlighted that proposed legislation banning the possession and supply of information on how to make DIY guns has yet to come into force.

The Government drafted new legislation after National Crime Agency (NCA) Director General Graeme Biggar called two years ago for the information to be outlawed after revealing the agency was discovering more homemade guns, but information on how to make them was not illegal to possess.

Mr Brennand has now written a Prevention of Future Deaths Notice to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, calling for the law to be fast tracked.

The inquest heard that Owen had recently begun using anabolic steroids, which could have increased personal problems.

He was found unresponsive in a shed at his home on the morning of Sunday, February 16 2025.

A post mortem gave the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head after he could not be revived.

The weapon was described in court as a “homemade, improvised privately made firearm" and was found in the shed.

It was found to have been produced in the two and a half years, before his suicide, on an unknown date, Wigan Today reported.

He had been out the previous evening and had been drinking alcohol.

Police recovered an unequivocal note of intent handwritten by the deceased from within

his motor car.

The report said: "His postmortem samples established him to have been moderately intoxicated from

alcohol he had been seen taking during the previous night out with friends.

"The evidence established that the deceased’s actions have been deliberate and intentional, albeit an impulsive, illogical and irrational act in the context of recent emotional dysregulation associated with his private life causing him to experience low mood and self-esteem, anxiety with elements of paranoia, potentially exacerbated by his recent consumption of anabolic steroids in preceding weeks."

Mr Brennand recorded he died by suicide.

His redacted report to the Home Office published today<Oct23> said homemade guns were "increasingly available for criminal or nefarious purposes."

He added: "Until such time proposed legislation is enacted, there remains a real and immediate risk."

The Home Office and NCA have been contacted for comment.