A Little Insanity To Go With Your Turkey

In England,

"The intention of anybody possessing a firearm is irrelevant."

The mere act of possessing it, however briefly, is illegal. So here's a guy, Paul Clarke (a former soldier and upstanding citizen, from the looks of it) who found a gun and brought it to the police station to "get it off the streets" ... and he has just been convicted. Clarke faces five years in prison. The jury had no choice:

Prosecuting, Brian Stalk, explained to the jury that possession of a firearm was a "strict liability" charge — therefore Mr. Clarke's allegedly honest intent was irrelevant. Just by having the gun in his possession he was guilty of the charge, and has no defence in law against it.

Today, on Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for the American heroes who wrested our country from the tyranny of exactly these kinds of laws.

[thanks, Nicky!]

Comments

[Chas]

Un-fucking-believable!

Any reasonable person would say that Mr Clarke was doing his civic duty. Instead, he's sentenced for preventing a dangerous weapon from getting into the hands of someone with less honourable intentions or, even worse, a curious child.

Yet another example of how everyone in this country is being systematically fucked up the arse by a government and legislature more concerned with their own agenda than with the preservation of the inalienable rights of its citizenry. He should immediately take his case to the European Court of Human Rights and take both the police and the British Government to the cleaners.

I found it particularly ironic that the original article linked above has disabled comments for "legal reasons". So as well as an apparently decent human being being royally shafted by the system, the rest of us are prevented from voicing our disapprobation at a thoroughly disgraceful situation. It makes me utterly ashamed to be British.

[Jay]

I live in London. It sucks. I am not British, yet I, too, am ashamed to be here. Every day. If I had any backbone, I would tell my wife, "Pack your shit; we're moving out of this neo-fascist shithole." Actually, I have said that, but she counters with "So tell me what country is any better?" Honestly, I can't think of a place that values civil liberties and good common sense. I would say America, but it is also becoming an intolerable nanny state. On the other hand, things are bigger in America -- I'd like a bigger house.

Anyway, there's another very recent case in England where a man found a gun in the park. He called the police, who were too busy to come get it. So they told him to bring it in. Why wasn't he also arrested? If I can find a link to it, I'll post it up. It was within the last couple of months, I'm certain.

[Jay]

Apologies for the delay in posting the link, but here it is. Apparently I misstated the facts about the police being too busy. The guy refused to have a police car come over for fear of reprisals from a neighborhood gang.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23760609-police-told-man-to-walk-two-miles-with-a-loaded-gun.do