Acquisition of firearms

Hi,

I'm currently writing what I hope will be a crime-thriller (though there's still time to slip down the Rom-Com slope if I'm not careful) and I have a character who gets involved in some less savoury activities.

I need for him to acquire a gun. I presume that there are black-markets with operatoes, distibutors and all the usual retail elements and depending on who you know, I guess it shouldn;t be too difficult to track them down.

My question is, does anyone have any idea what the going rate is for a handgun. Whether it be overheard at the pub, a dodgy associate at work or you read it in the news, I'd be interested to find out... Purely, of course, for research and literary purposes.

Also, if it's able t be answered, is there usually much of a choice, or is it a caseof buy whatever is available. If my character liked a certain type of gun, what are the chances he'd get that one?

This will be set in the UK, but international answers should still remain relevant since most are probably shipped from over-seas anyway. Fill me in if I'm wrong though.

Many thanks,

Rob.

Thanks ever so much for that information Shakesbear. More than I was hoping for, actually. That'll set me up quite nicely.

To answer Rowan's question... I was thinking of Semi-auto. I don't know an awful lot about guns (virtually nothing actually), but I did a bit of looking around, trying to find something distinctive and different and eventually found something called a 'U22-Neos' by Beretta.

I read somewhere that there are certain police divisions in Europe that use them but I'm thinking maybe I should go for something a bit more mainstream/ordinary like a military issue sidearm that may be easier for dealers to get hold of.