…and this is why gun control laws are anti-freedom, and do not work.

In many areas of life, activist groups have forced the system to remove rational judgement from the actual judiciary and impose sentences no matter what the actual circumstances are. I could quote other even more awful examples with even more devastating consequences to even more ‘innocent’ people. It would be interesting to see if this policy has actually decreased England’s violent crime rate or gun-use in crime or if instead, like gun-control does everywhere, just makes criminals out of ordinary civilized people while allowing violent thugs to act with greater and greater impunity knowing that their victims are less able to defend themselves and that judges will cut a break to actual thugs.

This is London

       Judge says sorry as he jails OAP for five years for firing ‘souvenir’ WWII pistol

Last updated at 00:22am on 09.02.08

 Victor BowdenVictor Bowden: Shot the windscreen of a neighbour’s car after he was woken by loud music

A judge apologised to a pensioner after saying he had no choice but to jail him for five years after he opened fire on a neighbour’s empty car with a Second World War pistol.

Victor Bowden, 65, had been driven to desperate measures by a two-and-a-half year battle over her constant partying and loud music, a court heard.

In the early hours of the morning, he took the gun, a wartime souvenir that had belonged to his stepfather, and fired it through the windscreen of his young neighbour’s car.

Today, he is beginning a prison sentence after a judge said he regretted that he was required by law to impose the lengthy term for his “foolish” act – even though the neighbour herself had pleaded for leniency.

“Regrettably, despite all the research we have done, there is no justification for any sentence other than the minimum five years in this case,” Judge Robert Brown told him.

Labour introduced a mandatory minimum five-year term for anyone caught with a firearm in public in a bid to clamp down on rising inner-city shootings, many involving drugs gangs.

By contrast, Bowden lives in the fishing port of Fleetwood, Lancashire, where he had been locked in a dispute with his neighbour, Karen Potter.

Preston Crown Court heard the retired security guard had been driven to distraction by the loud music and late-night parties at her home.

 

WWII souvenir: The pistol had belonged to his stepfather

 

He had complained to the local council, although not to police.

On October 18 last year, shortly after 3am, he fetched the wartime self-loading pistol, aimed it out of an upstairs window, and fired it through the windscreen of her parked car.

She went outside to investigate and found the glass shattered and a bullet embedded in the dashboard, the court heard.

Police were called and found Bowden in his back garden where he had hidden the gun – a German-made 7.65mm Sauer and Sohn – in a plant pot.

He later pleaded guilty to possession of an illegal firearm and having the gun while committing an act of criminal damage.

Miss Potter wrote to the court asking for leniency for her neighbour.

“I feel that he should be punished, but I don’t ask that he go to prison,” she said. “I just wish he had come and spoken to me before this happened.”

Following the row, Bowden had moved to live with his mother, who is suffering from cancer, the court heard.

However, the judge said he had no choice but to pass the minimum sentence, which applies in all apart from “exceptional” cases.

He told Bowden: “You had become exasperated, and perhaps reasonably so, by the music coming from your neighbour’s house in the early hours of the morning.

“Maybe because you had had some beer, on this particular night that exasperation became too much for you, and you decided to make some noise of your own.”

Jailing him for five years for the firearms offence, with a further year to run concurrently for the criminal damage, he said he was taking into account the circumstances leading up to his “foolish act”.

Afterwards, Det Con Mark Kelsall, of Fleetwood CID, said: “Bowden’s behaviour was irrational and frightening, and although nobody was in the street when he discharged the firearm, his neighbours were understandably very upset and scared by the incident.”

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

11 Replies to “…and this is why gun control laws are anti-freedom, and do not work.”

  1. Vlad, due to my , erm less than honest friends, I could buy a firearm and ammo any time I should wish to. Such are the joys of living in SE London, right now I rely on my cricket bat (and my friends).

  2. This old chap should have been given a suspended sentence and had the firearm taken away.

  3. In 1920 the British government fearing a communist revolution wanted to know who owned firearms so they could call on them in case of an emergency, they createI d the licensing system that was expanded into the current one. With the ordinary citizen being unable to easily acquire firearms the criminals had a field day with armed robberies, the next year in 1921 Britain passed the law executing anyone convicted of using a firearm in a crime, gun crime rates dropped quickly. Sometime in the 60s the death sentence was repealed and gun crime has been raising ever since.

    Gun control laws are really victim disarmament laws, the honest citizens are the only ones that obey them.

    EDL Buck, I own several legal guns (in my state they don’t have to be registered) and could if I had to find out where to buy the illegal full auto weapons.

  4. The judge that handed out this sentence is the same judge that let the muzzies walk after kicking the shit out of the white girl from the previous story.

  5. and what has been done to rein in the behaviour of the selfish tart that caused this incedent?
    nothing, i suppose………….

  6. Yeah, of course; smashing your neighbour’s windscreen with a gun is criminal. The law is the law! However, a strict application of the law or the rules can often lead to absurdity, not to mention a gross miscarriage of justice. Whatever, happened to considering each case on its particular set of circumstances!

    Hope there is an appeal!

  7. With the benefit of hindsight, had he phoned the police and complained about the homophobic and islamophobic remarks the partygoers were making…………

  8. Well the judge had discretion in “exceptional” circumstances. I’d say this was an exceptional circumstance.
    We couldn’t bring back hanging for using a firearm for a crime, hanging that many black people would just look bad.

  9. It is I Victor Bowden who has now done my time…I was sent to a b cat prison for two and half years then two and half years probation.i feel I was unjustly sent to prison however I was wrong for shooting my neighbours car for which I am sorry. But I believe the sentence was right as it was the law for discharging a unregistered firearm. I was a pensioner doing something very stupid not a criminal doing a crime. that is all my friends I have no hard feelings.. god bless you all….V