And the dog ate my homework

Every now and again a judge makes a decision that is so out of touch with reality, so ridiculous and so transparently wrong that you are left with no other choice but to doubt his very motives. Was he listening to the evidence? Did he turn up to court at all? Does he fancy the defendant? This judge here, for instance:

A Birmingham MP has criticised a judge after he decided not to jail a man who took a loaded gun into a nightclub.

The man told the judge that he found the gun in the car park and thought that it was a cigarette lighter. The judge believed him.

Did you know that the Criminal Justice Act 2003 introduced a minimum sentence of five years for possession of a prohibited firearm? Did you know that young sporting shots below the age of 17 were banned recently from carrying their sporting airguns from their homes to their clubs even if they are unloaded and in secure cases? Did you know that the recent Anti-Social behaviour bill made it illegal to carry a toy gun in public without good reason or lawful authority (an authority, I might add, that can never be given)?

All this in the name of tightening up the laws to reduce the tidal wave of gun crime on the streets of Britain.

We have some of the most restrictive and harsh firearms laws in the world and each new one that is passed further restricts the ability of sportsmen and women to pursue their chosen pastime. But that’s just the thing isn’t it? The guaranteed effect of these laws is that the law abiding will obey them, whereas the criminals will continue to ignore them. Yet we see more and more of them and the legislators just never seem to get it.

Another law here, another restriction there, another tweak to this piece of legislation and all in the name of reducing gun crime and kerbing gun culture when year after year, decade after decade all we see are further restrictions on the legitimate and law abiding while the criminals not only continue to ignore the law but actually, when caught, use their old schoolboy excuses to get off.

It's not mine, I found it outside in the playground.

Whatever you might think of the desire of a minority of people to pursue shooting as a hobby you must at least be beginning to think that legislation is no longer the answer. The politicians, anti-liberty campaign groups and the media have been banging on at you for years, decades that gun laws must be tightened and you have nodded and agreed and let the legislators get on with it.

And what have they delivered to you in return?

A Britain where gun crime is rising out of control, where young girls are gunned down at parties, where policemen are shot at by passing cars and where criminals carry the right gun to the right place just to prove they know how to accessorise properly.

Don’t be fooled any longer. When they say to you that we need more gun laws tell them you are no longer interested in their lame excuses and their poor performances.

It’s time they started putting their efforts and money into catching and punishing the criminals.

They have run out of excuses.

I have updated the bit about what act introduced the minimum 5 year sentence for the possession of a prohibited firearm. I said that it was the Anti-Social behaviour bill when in fact it was the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

Posted by John at March 25, 2004 08:12 AM | TrackBack