" 

 == ""armed with a gun and cleaver"" == 

 The gun was a rusty ""cowboy gun"" from the 1920s and incapable of firiing. (That this was the only gun they could get testifies to the effectiveness of regulation on Great Britain.) 

 http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/01876/gun_1876532a.jpg"