This is just plain stupid.  Do these people have no common sense?

Ex-soldier faces jail for handing in gun
Thursday, November 12, 2009, 10:30
A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for “doing his duty”.

Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.

The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year’s imprisonment for handing in the weapon.

In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said: “I didn’t think for one moment I would be arrested.

“I thought it was my duty to hand it in and get it off the streets.”

link here

Are you KIDDING me?  So, next time throw it in the garbage???

I think what they intended was that he should have left it in his yard, called to report it, and hope someone didn’t come along and take it to commit some other crime before the police came to collect it.  Then again, with it being in a bag, it probably already had been.  I really can’t agree with the jury’s decision, though.  This guy was clearly trying to do what he thought was the right thing, and he’s being penalized.

If it’s in his garden isn’t it still in his possesson?

Sharruma - 12 November 2009 01:23 PM

If it’s in his garden isn’t it still in his possesson?

That’s what I was thinking.  I suppose that the legal thing to do would have been to quietly throw it into the middle of the nearest public way and then not ever mention it.

I think that this is one of those cases where the people who wrote the law made it without really thinking through all the possibilities.  Perhaps this case will make whatever legislative or judicial body is involved re-evaluate and amend the law.  Because the law as it is really is incredibly stupid and leaves a lot of room for hazards.  What if somebody finds a fully loaded machine-gun in the middle of a playground full of kids, with a round chambered and the safety off and everything, and there isn’t any policeman or telephone or other adult around?  Is he to just leave it sitting there amongst all those kids while he walks to the nearest police station to report it?  Then he’d probably be charged with negligence at the very least, and possibly with a lot more if the kids got a hold of it and started blasting each other away.  When the law creates situations where an innocent passerby cannot possibly escape guilt through absolutely no fault of their own, you have a major problem with the laws.  Clearly, this is a case where the spirit of the law doesn’t match up with the letter of the law.

Thank you, Acci—you said what I wanted to say, better than I could have said it!

A real jawdropper.