Oh Dear!!

[pnuk]

The Police are never right.

They are accused of being too heavy handed.

Yet, if some individual managed to get hoid of this handgun ( I doubt it was in his firearms cabinet ) and ran amok, leading to further restrictions on LEGITIMATE FAC holders, we all would blame the Police for not upholding the Firearms laws properly.

Police - always wrong. Always wooly liberals or facist bully boys. Usually at the same time :-)

+1.

As to 25pdr's comment re. unannounced visits leading to the discovery of mass law breaking by FAC/SGC holders? That's the sort of thing I'd expect Peter Squires to claim. What utter s***.

+1 to all of the above.

[Chuck]

It would make life easier if we just made them LEGAL! We have the checks etc in place........

[Les]

It would make life easier if we just made them LEGAL! We have the checks etc in place........

I don't think that this is a question of legality, Chuck. I think it's more about the fact that he had his firearms out in the open where they could have been accessed by anybody who paid him a visit. If they had of been locked away, then we wouldn't be reading about him.

[Chuck]

hi Les,

I agree on the safety issue of leaving them lying around, that is of course silly as there is no excuse for that, even if they were defensive (which obvioulsy they are NOT).

Much as I am pro gun for all sorts of reasons I hate it when there's some bad press because some clown who professed to be so good "they taught their kids to shoot" gets shot by same kid because they put a loaded gun within their reach.

THIS is a prime example of a disaster waiting to happen:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... e-invader/

Totally irresponsible old before his time brat who IMO should be facing jail time as should the parents. Whoever taught this kid is a moron. I think charges of reckless discharge of a firearm, attempted murder and the breaking of whatever local laws relating to firearms and thier discharge within whatever boundaries is well warranted here! As is of course the damage caused by all those stray rounds - that idiot could have killed an innocent person! As for BRAGGING, that is a definite NO NO! An article designed to stir up the antis for sure.

IMO he has grossly violated his "self defence " rights, he set out to potentially kill someone! Yes I did just say that.

[Mezzer]

He was a Secretary of a Gun Club that housed sect 7 handguns, lots of them, surely a position of trust, he was not in any way a threat to society.

He broke the rules but if every FAC holder in the UK was subjected to a unannounced detailed search, the prisons would be overflowing.

The possible ways of breaking the Firearms laws are vast and sometimes not understood, there is people being sent to jail for the most ridiculous things like have a few rounds of ammo not allowed on their ticket even though they may have had at one time and forgot they had some left.

With respect:

The cops can conduct a detailed search of my premises any time they wish and they won't find anything out of order. I'm pretty sure that goes for the vast majority of FAC holders as well. Sure, there will be some instances where something will be found that doesn't match the security / firearm conditions required but these will be in the minority.
As an FAC holder, I fully understand the need to keep myself squeaky clean and probably go OTT in that respect as I'm sure a lot of other FAC holders do.
The gentleman in this scenario however, was well-versed in the firearms business and fully deserves the penalty as applied. He has no excuse whatsoever and won't get any sympathy from me. Playing the Veteran card just makes it worse.

Mezzer

[Chuck]

It appears then he was clobbered for leaving them lying around and not cos they were illegal then?

Make them legal - save a lot of police time...and it would make money for the government coffers .BUT, with the usual safety requirements - which are common sense really.

[AJSawyer]

He did know the rules, and it does serve him right.

Unfortunately all he's done is create more bad press... another stick for the anti gun crowd to beat us with.

And anyone who knows that if an unannounced check at their home would give cause for them to be in prison... well perhaps that's a sign you're not responsible enough to be trusted with firearms?

[Dark Skies]

I think a fine and confiscation of his firearms with a suspended sentence would have been a fairer punishment for someone of his age. It's not like anyone was harmed - they lay dormant in his home. There have been umpteen incidents of police firearms officers losing guns in public toilets, in the street, on the roof of cars - loaded guns in public. Extremely high risk to the public but nobody goes to jail for that.