Comments on: This Explains Why The British Don’t Carry Guns; Apparently It’s Illegal

By: Travis

Travis — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:39:23 +0000

Usually those who are guiltiest are calling others names.

England, you lost your way. That saddens me. I’m sure Sir. Winston Churchill is spinning in his grave.

By: dagriggs

dagriggs — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:37:29 +0000

Bluee and Luke don’t have a clue. Its not complicated rocket science. If it is on your property you are in possession!
Roy’s got it right. And I would add a firearm thrown on to your property automatically makes you a felon! Now what are you going to do? Call the cops, it’s a crime. Move it it’s a crime. Tell someone, anyone and get caught in a crime. The answer is it IS A BAD LAW that makes criminals out of good (or innocent) people

By: geoff

geoff — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:43:03 +0000

The police — or as we like to think of them, the armed wing of the surrealist movement.

By: randy

randy — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:44:21 +0000

stupid man should have put it away till he needs it. giving up you right to self protection was the dumbest think the brits ever did. when they take our weapons here in the USA there will no longer be a USA..we will have succumbed to the globalist and socialist like our idiot president…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:51:42 +0000

Funny, the Brits are so quick to call American’s stupid, but the Brits invented stupid and remain kings of stupid to this day.

By: FZE

FZE — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:27:42 +0000

“Hello, Police? Someone’s thrown a gun into my yard.”

“You see, Judge? He confessed it was in his yard!”

“Irrefutable evidence! Lock him up!”

By: andrew

andrew — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:42:17 +0000

“An unjust law is no law at all”
I believe it was a certain man named Ghandi who said this, if a citizen can be punished for being safe in spite of law I say it is an unjust law.

By: tbeard

tbeard — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:06:02 +0000

This is an interesting contrast to Switzerland, where everyone is supposed to own a gun. The government doesn’t let anyone give them back either, so piles will be discarded in front of government buildings

By: KC

KC — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:23:11 +0000

eh… what gun… ?

By: Roy

Roy — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:35:33 +0000

ya you phone the police and they come to your house and arrest you for having a firearm on your property… same as the original story, but now your property might get confiscated as well…

By: Luke

Luke — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:22:04 +0000

As bluee says above, it’s not rocket science. Phone the police and say “Someone has thrown a gun into my garden”. You don’t have to walk the streets to the police station with it.

I’d rather this than police carrying guns.

By: bluee

bluee — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:29:42 +0000

“This also makes me wonder what the proper way is to get rid of a firearm”

you phone the police and they come take it away, its not complicated :s

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:50:07 +0000

This prosecution flies in the face opublic interest part of teh charging standard on the CPS website and advice in the Home office guidance for police on firearms as well as firmly doing away with the concept of ‘mens rea’.

The arresting officer should be sacked for not knowing or referring to the guidelines. The CPS and prosecuting council should be sacked for ignoring their guidelines and actually bringing the case. The judge should be sacked for not giving the others a bollocking and throwing the case out.

BTW when I was on jury duty another jury were directed to find someone not guilty on a point of law. They were told if they brought a guilty verdict, which they wanted to, they would all be punished for contempt of court so I assume Jury nullification doesn’t exist in the UK.

By: Waffle

Waffle — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:20:44 +0000

The problem here is the concept of ’strict liability’ for possession offences. ‘Criminal intent’ has to be part of any law, or it just becomes a way to lock innocent people up – whether for handing in something they found, or because someone slipped some drugs/knives/child porn/information useful to terrorists into their backpack while they weren’t looking.

If you ever find yourself on a jury being told by a judge that you must convict someone who did nothing wrong because he’s broken the law, always remember that you can ignore the law and find him not guilty. It’s called “jury nullification” and it’s been the most important right of juries for hundreds of years – they can’t be punished for giving the ‘wrong’ verdict.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:42:42 +0000

Getting rid of a gun in England is easy, just throw it in someone else’s yard. Piece of cake.