From: Jonathan Spencer, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>If you had an illegal handgun stolen, would you report it? You'd have
>to be nuts. Therefore, can we be sure that these '142 handguns' are all
>cartridge firing handguns, or could they include air and CO2 guns?
>--
>How do we know the police found out the gun was stolen from the
>burglary victim?
Well, if an unlawfully held handgun is stolen during a burglary, it
won't be traceable by the police through the licensing system since it
won't be recorded against a certificate. I suppose there might have
been 142 instances where burglar(s) *told* the police that the gun(s)
the police had found on him had been stolen when he burgled such-and-
such an address, but it seems a bit far fetched to me when around 'only'
300 handguns per annum were being stolen for half of them to be
identified this way. I strongly suspect misclassification.
>Also I am not entirely convinced that they
>would not report it stolen, after all, most illegally held guns
>are owned by otherwise law-abiding people and the threat of
>prosecution for illegal possession is far less worrying that
>being involved in a murder case if the gun is used by the
>burglar, don't you think?
I think most people would keep their traps shut.
But on that subject, I have a case on my books right now and it behoves
all certificate holders to listen to me on this.
Last year, a shooter who lives out of town in this area, in a somewhat
remote detached house, put his shotgun and ammunition in his car which
was just outside his front door. He popped back inside to collect
something he'd forgotten and during the two minutes he was gone, someone
stole his gun and cartridges. He had not locked the car. (Be honest:
would you have done?)
His gun was sawn down, and it was used to fire two rounds of buckshot
into the back of a young man's head from about 12 inches, obviously
killing him. The shooter lost his shotgun certificate, but the young
man lost his life.
The certificate holder was, I understand, also prosecuted for breach of
the conditions of his certificate. That's almost irrelevant.
--Jonathan Spencer, firearms examiner
"Justice is open to everybody in the same way as the Ritz Hotel."
Judge Sturgess, 22 July 1928
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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