Police confiscated my 150 year old muzzle loader.

[DL.]

First post wanting advice and then doesn't add anything to the forum once the membership has helped him.

[R4CER]

Do you think he's inside and has no access to a computor :)

[snayperskaya]

Do you think he's inside and has no access to a computor :)

Perhaps he's Mr Bigs Tuesday afternoon thing!

[Spiggy]

Hello, I haven't visited this site for a while since I thought that I had adequately exhausted the subject.
Not only that but my trial is not until early next month, plus the fact that the CPS keep making changes to their indictments.

Whilst the charge for owing the ornamental, obsolete and broken 1840's fowling piece as a wall gun is still being made, the CPS have now also charged me with the following :-

As a result of my 1.5 acre small holding and ponds being raided by foxes, otters, cormorants and herons ( which cost me no end of rabbits, chickens, chinchillas and Koi carp at £500 a go ), I employed as a pest scarer a starting pistol type replica revolver I bought many years ago. This replica gun, which fired blanks through a partly blocked barrel, was confiscated by the police at the time of their visit and seizure of the fowling piece last year. The CPS now maintain that with the addition of a cup like device which screws into the end of the barrel, this gun could discharge tear gas and the like. When I bought it twenty years ago the retailer told me that my purchase of this cup would permit me to fire
signal flares and fireworks as well as blanks, but, nonetheless, I declined to purchase one. He did not mention its ability to discharge CS gas and the like.

[Spiggy]

First post wanting advice and then doesn't add anything to the forum once the membership has helped him.

Your judgement is cruel. What do you want from me ? Posts on classic cars, foreign travel, Cuban cigars, fine Burgundies etc etc etc etc. I can contribute no end of amusing, informative and educational threads on those and a thousand other subjects, but what purpose is served by me submitting material on those subjects of which I know very little, and of which guns and shooting is one.
If I knew any more about shooting, I probably wouldn't be looking at a potential five year prison sentence.................which, in any event, distracts me just a tad from submitting pointless posts anyway !

[DL.]

First post wanting advice and then doesn't add anything to the forum once the membership has helped him.

Your judgement is cruel. What do you want from me ? Posts on classic cars, foreign travel, Cuban cigars, fine Burgundies etc etc etc etc. I can contribute no end of amusing, informative and educational threads on those and a thousand other subjects, but what purpose is served by me submitting material on those subjects of which I know very little, and of which guns and shooting is one.
If I knew any more about shooting, I probably wouldn't be looking at a potential five year prison sentence.................which, in any event, distracts me just a tad from submitting pointless posts anyway !

I was being mild! This forum is an online community.. it's not unusual to see people signing up and then asking to buy things, for obscure technical information, or what they can sell to make a tidy profit, a lot of the time with minimum input and posts. Some forum users get what they want and then aren't seen again.

It seems like poor manners to me. Most on here share experiences to allow other forum users to benefit, which is what keeps this place a useful asset of shooting knowledge.

In your case, I'm sure that what's unfolding for your situation through the court system could be a valuable wake up call for other shooters who may be inadvertently breaking firearms law, I'm sure regardless of the outcome of your case you would feel better if you prevented someone else going through what you've had to endure.
Don't forget to keep the members updated, as can be seen above on the thread, it looked like you were gone and not planning on returning despite the useful advice from the membership.

[Mezzer]

Spiggy;

Good luck. Hope it works out well for you.

Mezzer

[Countryman]

Following this with interest. On the Muzzleloader the case should be dropped as soon as the CPS brief checks the law.

The difference between a black powder wall piece and something on your SGC is intent. Assuming you has no powder, shot and caps I think they will have a hard time with this.

I'm not clear if the blank firers are of the type that were banned because of the ease of conversion but if not then I can't see where they are going with this either. I take it you have no CS canisters siezed?

This thread might be of interest. http://m.gunstar.co.uk/forum/help-and-a ... ?&redirm=1

Airgun is an airgun. It should be secure from misuse but that's the only issue.

I think you have been put through an awful lot of worry for nothing. I can't help but think that a decent lawyer would have been in touch with the CPS and pointed out the error of their ways.

[Blackstuff]

I think the CPS Sentencing Guide should be read by a few on here, including the OP;

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/firearms/

The only firearms offence that carries a mandatory sentence relates to Section 5/Prohibited Firearms, so that is not applicable here in relation to the shotgun. In fact having a quick skip through this the maximum sentence for a 'technical'/no certificate offence appears to be 6 months when the gun wasn't used in the commission of a crime.

The possession of ANY blank firer is not a criminal offence. Since the introduction of the VCR Act the sale, manufacture or import of a blank firer is an offence if it is not brightly coloured or sold/manufactured/imported by someone with an exemption (dealer, someone with a UKARA number etc). If you have an all black/silver blank firer from before the VCR Act you are still not committing an offence unless you sell it to someone without an exemption.

The only blank firers which attract a criminal offence for possession alone are those which have been deemed to be readily convertible, which AFAIK only include the Olympic BBM revolvers in .380

Half way down the page;
http://basc.org.uk/firearms/changes-to-legislation/

OP: If one/both of your blank firers was one of those you could be in the do-do

Best of luck

[Spiggy]

First post wanting advice and then doesn't add anything to the forum once the membership has helped him.

Your judgement is cruel. What do you want from me ? Posts on classic cars, foreign travel, Cuban cigars, fine Burgundies etc etc etc etc. I can contribute no end of amusing, informative and educational threads on those and a thousand other subjects, but what purpose is served by me submitting material on those subjects of which I know very little, and of which guns and shooting is one.
If I knew any more about shooting, I probably wouldn't be looking at a potential five year prison sentence.................which, in any event, distracts me just a tad from submitting pointless posts anyway !

I was being mild! This forum is an online community.. it's not unusual to see people signing up and then asking to buy things, for obscure technical information, or what they can sell to make a tidy profit, a lot of the time with minimum input and posts. Some forum users get what they want and then aren't seen again.

It seems like poor manners to me. Most on here share experiences to allow other forum users to benefit, which is what keeps this place a useful asset of shooting knowledge.

In your case, I'm sure that what's unfolding for your situation through the court system could be a valuable wake up call for other shooters who may be inadvertently breaking firearms law, I'm sure regardless of the outcome of your case you would feel better if you prevented someone else going through what you've had to endure.
Don't forget to keep the members updated, as can be seen above on the thread, it looked like you were gone and not planning on returning despite the useful advice from the membership.

I stand by my comment as to your harshness. I have long since described my predicament in full, as well as responding to such posts as my original thread prompted. Insofar as any further follow up on my part is concerned, surely the only relevant issue now to be decided is the outcome of my trial.
If found Not Guilty I couldn't guarantee that my joy wouldn't cloud my ability to recall the need to advise this forum of the outcome ; if sentenced to a custodial sentence of up to five years I'd be denied access to the Internet anyway !