Ex-soldier faces jail for handing in gun
Part One:
Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday …
The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year’s imprisonment …
This right here is bad enough. The British Nanny State – and of course several of the more blighted and corrupt cities in the US – make it a crime to simply posess a weapon. But it gets better. Lots better.
Part Two:
The court heard how Mr Clarke was on the balcony of his home in Nailsworth Crescent, Merstham, when he spotted a black bin liner at the bottom of his garden.
In his statement, he said: “I took it indoors and inside found a shorn-off shotgun and two cartridges.
“I didn’t know what to do, so the next morning I rang the Chief Superintendent, Adrian Harper, and asked if I could pop in and see him.
“At the police station, I took the gun out of the bag and placed it on the table so it was pointing towards the wall.”
Mr Clarke was then arrested immediately for possession of a firearm at Reigate police station, and taken to the cells.
Wow.
As if it’s not bad enough that the Brits have these evil laws, the cops actually enforced them. And worse still, a British jury actually convicted him. This is *exactly* what “jury nullification” is for.
Just by having the gun in his possession he was guilty of the charge, and has no defence in law against it, he added.
Brits: it’s really well past time for y’all to have a revolution. You live in a police state.
11 Responses to “WOW! Fricken’…. *boggle* I mean, that’s just…. WOW.”
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One wonders what would have happened to him had he simple called the police as soon as he saw the odd object. Perhaps they would have brought in the bomb squad, obliterated his garden and shed, and then charged him with a false report because the thing was not a bomb? Or would they have simple trashed his house searching for more illegal firearms?
Isn’t this sort of thing one of the things the Founding Fathers wanted to avoid?
>Isn’t this sort of thing one of the things the Founding Fathers wanted to avoid?
The *American* Founding Fathers, yes. I’m not really sure who the British Founding Fathers were. I’m starting to think the Brit FF’s might have been some sort of weird marriage of the Goons and Mosley’s crowd. But more likely it was that pack of inbred effete freaks that formed the foundation of British “nobility.” Once you set up a society where it’s not just property that can transfer through bloodlines, but also political power and “title,” you’ve set yourself up for a system where the people are “subjects,” not “citizens.”
Welcome to Airship One. Please enjoy your stay.
Jim
Once again, abundant proof that you should NEVER do the right thing. This falls into the category of “Shoot, shovel, shut up.”
Now, are the bobbies going to find out who actually had the weapon, and how many people they murdered with it?
Alas, the British population (of whom I am one) isn’t aware of the concept of jury nullification – I consider myself aware, and had to check what it meant. Bear in mind that this is a country which has been accustomed to doing what it’s told for at least sixty or seventy years, and questioning authority is virtually unheardof.
There are no ‘Founding Fathers’ in Britain, and I’m not sure that there are any in any nation other than the USA: the origins of the USA are pretty unusual in being an attempt to gain freedom from tyranny, and actually making it work.
All that said, I’m astounded that this even got to court. Sure, he may have been technically in breach of the law, but that’s because it’s a ridiculous law. Even if it’s a good idea to ban firearms – and I don’t think it is – it’s a spectacularly stupid idea not to allow people to turn in ones that they’ve found.
> the British population (of whom I am one) isn’t aware of the concept of jury nullification
Time fer some book learnin’.
> There are no ‘Founding Fathers’ in Britain, and I’m not sure that there are any in any nation other than the USA
Oh, sure, lots of nations have ’em, or the equivalent. Especially here in the “New World,” where the European empires were eventually driven out by a mulitude of revolutions. The leaders of those revolutions, such as Bolivar in much of South America, are the equivalent. Turkey has Attaturk, who I believe functions as that nations’ FF. And of course the Soviets and China had their pack of founding Commie bastards.
>it’s a spectacularly stupid idea not to allow people to turn in ones that they’ve found.
Agreed. It woulda been better if he’d been allowed to keep it. The criminal herd needs to be occaisionally thinned out with the occasional shotgun blast.
> are the bobbies going to find out who actually had the weapon
Given that the same feller had a runin with the law a year earlier, and publicly won his day in court (to police embarassment), I would not be in the least bit surprised if the prior possesser of the weapon was one of them there bobbies.
You can get a man in trouble by sending his computer a virus.
In Britain you can get a man in trouble by dumping a crappy useless firearm on his property.
Britain today = USA 2025
Book it.
> Britain today = USA 2025
And that’s why I blather on about these nonsensical rulings coming out of Britain. Because It Can Happen Here.
Scott?!?! It HAS happened here. The difference is here you can fight it, and win. Not so much in the vast majority of the world.
Oh, and I agree, most likely it was planted. I read more on this, and the Man had a definite grudge against this citizen.