Quote from: sexytwIve been thinking about this. I think the guy might have foolishly been expecting some kind of award or hero comendation. Phone up and booking an appointment without mentioning the gun seems deliberate, i think he may have been expecting to reveal the gun to a round of applause and praise for doing such a good job.

I was thinking more that he wanted to make a point of "I found this at the bottom of my garden, wtf are you guys being paid for?" rather than get a pat on the back :/

Quote from: bytejunkie

Quote from: MongooseWhat happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?

have you not read the article?

hes being done for possession. not intent. how can he defend himself against posession?

Matt

you make a good point, he clearly was in possession of an illegal firearm. Does it not seem wrong to you though that transporting a gun you have just found to the local cop-shop in order to hand it in and have it safely disposed of carries the same penalty as carrying a piece with intent to use it on another human being?

I dont think anyone here is arguing that he went about this the right way, but in the words of Queen Elizabeth I "if we went around punishing people for being stupid, Nursey would have been in prison all her life".

What should have happened is Chief Supernintendo Jobsworth should have quietly given him a stern warning, advised on the correct procedure, then let him go with the weapon confiscated.

Quote from: Mongoosethis does beg the question "what the hell was he SUPPOSED to do?"

absolute disgrace.

youre supposed to just call the police

replace gun with dead body - you find a dead body at the bottom of your garden do you a) call the police or b) make an appointment to see the chief inspector, not mention what the appointment is for, leave the dead body in your house overnight then walk into the police station and dump the dead body on his desk......

the fact that there is a or gun at the bottom of your garden indicates that a serious offence might have taken place - the police tend to like to collect forensic evidence when a serious offence takes place - contaminating the scene is likely to piss them off, bringing it into the inspectors office and dumping it on his desk with no prior explanation will piss them off further....

the guy was a bit of a spanner on that part and the law is designed so that there isnt really any excuse for posession and quite frankly there really isnt (aside from being a complete dumbass).

edit - should add I do have some sympathy regarding the sentence but unfortunately it isnt really something that can be changed much given how the law has been designed.

Quote from: zpyderMaybe part of the problem was the guy being a soldier, guns didnt exactly freak him out and he took it in his stride, knowing that it would be as safe with him as it would a policeman for the time being?

but this is the reason why what he did is especially dumb

every member of the armed forces should be fully aware that what he did is a offence - theyre reminded of this fact evey time they leave a firing range or training area.

basically you all line up and officer running the range/exercise etc.. explains to everyone that it is both a military and civilian offence if they leave the range with any live rounds/blank rounds, empty cases or pyrotechnics in thier posession, an NCO then goes round and checks everyones pouches for empty cases and a verbal declaration is taken off everyone present - this happenes after every range day/exercise by all military units - essentially this ex-soldier will have been reminded hundreds of times throughout his career that it is a serious offence - given this you really do have to presume that the guy was a massive massive mong.

The issue isnt that the crime wasnt obvious but that the penalty is ridiculously over the top.

i think there are some valid points on both sides of the arguments. However as someone has stated, possesion is the crime, not possesion with intent. I think the judge will have his hands tied by the law (that is even if he wanted to let him off)

Ok, so possession is the crime and the penalty if found guilty is bound by law.

How about a scenario where you are walking through a park, and glance into a kids playground, and spot the bag with the barrel of the shotgun sticking out somewhere in there, and kids are playing around.

Im guessing the logical thing is call the police and ask if it will be ok to move it away from where the kids are. If they say yes, great, if they say no, its no longer your responsibility...