You'll get no sympthy from me for posessing unliscenced lethal weapons.
And you won't get it from me, either. There's nothing wrong with defending your home against intruders, but that doesn't justify owning an unlicensed gun. Now, it's too bad for mr. Dixon that he lost $500 when the lawyer he paid to help him with the paperwork went out of business, but that's no excuse for not getting the required gun permit. He should have found another lawyer to help him with the paperwork.
I have to agree with prosecutor Charles Hynes. Owning an unlicensed gun is illegal -- the punishment for owning an unlicensed gun is doing time in jail -- mr. Dixon owned an unlicensed gun -- so he should go to jail. Plain and simple: you do the crime, you do the time.
I think mr. Dixon would have been better off if he had accepted the deal he was offered. It would only have cost him four weekends during which he couldn't work, but he might very well have at least *kept* his job. If he's going to jail for a year, he's definitely gonna be out of a job.
Besides, I think the "I would be out of a job" statement is a lame excuse; mr. Dixon *knew* he was breaking the law by owning an unlicensed gun. If he's going to lose his job because of it, well, that's his own fault -- he should have thought of that before he decided to keep an unlicensed gun in the house.
I also note that the article didn't say whether the burglar was armed. If he wasn't armed, then I would probably also support charges against mr. Dixon for attempted manslaughter.
I only wonder if the burglar is going to follow tradition and sue mr. Dixon for shooting him...
Jeroen "You do the crime, you do the time" van Baardwijk
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