The Scottish judicial system is fucked-up.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

Grandmother jailed over WWII 'family heirloom' pistol

A grandmother has been jailed for five years for possessing a "family heirloom" World War II pistol.

Gail Cochrane, 53, had kept the gun for 29 years following the death of her father, who had been in the Royal Navy.

Police found the weapon, a Browning self-loading pistol, during a search of her home in Dundee while looking for her son.

She admitted illegal possession of the firearm, an offence with a minimum five-year jail term under Scots law.

Cochrane told the High Court in Edinburgh that she had never contemplated she might be committing a crime by keeping the gun or that she might need to get a licence for the weapon.

She said: "I thought it was just a war trophy."

Defence solicitor advocate Jack Brown argued that the circumstances surrounding the case were exceptional and that it would be "draconian, unjust and disproportionate" to jail the grandmother-of-six.

Prohibited weapon
However, Judge Lady Smith said: "I am not satisfied that a reasonable explanation has been put forward for not handing this gun into the authorities throughout the 29-year period she says she has had it in her possession."

The judge said she was unable to find herself satisfied that this was one of the rare cases in which exceptional circumstances existed.

She said: "The result is I have no alternative but to sentence Mrs Cochrane to a period of five years."

The case began after police arrived at the 53-year-old's home on 17 June 2009 with an arrest warrant for her son who had failed to turn up for a court appearance.

He was not at the flat, but the 80-year-old pistol was found underneath a mattress in her bedroom.

When interviewed, Cochrane told police that the gun had previously belonged to her father and that she had kept it when he died.

She said she believed it was a real gun, but had no ammunition for it.

The weapon was sent for examination by firearms experts who concluded that it was a Czech-made pistol dating back to about 1927.

Cochrane admitted having the 7.65 millimetre Browning self-loading pistol at her home without a firearms certificate and possessing the prohibited weapon without the authority of the Secretary of State or Scottish ministers.

For-fucks-sake!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I would get several consecutive life sentences over there.

Then they would execute me.

[Feck]

British gun laws are revamped everytime there is an incident . At one point they were passing laws that made Very pistols illegal and paintball guns !
Kneejerk responses by politicians that refuse to challenge the wisdom of the tabloid press .

[Horwood Beer-Master]

I perfectly understand the gun being illegal and everything. I just don't understand the dipshit judge not seeing this as 'exceptional circumstances', and instead giving her the mandatory five years for it.


I mean just think how many people up-and-down the land are still using old (not always disarmed) German incendiary bombs as doorstops and paperweights?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I perfectly understand the gun being illegal and everything. I just don't understand the dipshit judge not seeing this as 'exceptional circumstances', and instead giving her the mandatory five years for it.


I mean just think how many people up-and-down the land are still using old (not always disarmed) German incendiary bombs as doorstops and paperweights?

I agree. If you can't see that every situation needs it's own evaluation you shouldn't be a judge.

[Pappa]

I perfectly understand the gun being illegal and everything. I just don't understand the dipshit judge not seeing this as 'exceptional circumstances', and instead giving her the mandatory five years for it.

I think the point is that she would have had ample opportunity to hand in the gun, but chose not to.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I perfectly understand the gun being illegal and everything. I just don't understand the dipshit judge not seeing this as 'exceptional circumstances', and instead giving her the mandatory five years for it.

I think the point is that she would have had ample opportunity to hand in the gun, but chose not to.

[img]Grandmother%20jailed%20over%20WWII%20'family%20heirloom'%20pistol[/img]

[Horwood Beer-Master]

I perfectly understand the gun being illegal and everything. I just don't understand the dipshit judge not seeing this as 'exceptional circumstances', and instead giving her the mandatory five years for it.

I think the point is that she would have had ample opportunity to hand in the gun, but chose not to.

Presumably because she (quite understandably) subconsciously placed this wartime relic in a different category of "thing" in her mind from 'guns' as you think of them when you hear the phrase 'gun crime' or 'illegal gun'.

Think of it as akin to the way most of us wouldn't mentally place our opposite-sex (or same sex if that's how you roll) parent in the category of 'sexual being', even though we factually know they must have had sex at least once.
It probably no more occurred to her to hand this gun in, then it would occur to you to have sex with your mother. She factually knew it was a gun, but she just never thought of it as one.

[Feck]

Kept it under the mattress not in the box with the pictures and momentos though ..so she knew and thought of it as a weapon .

[owtth]

Do people normally keep heirlooms under their mattresses? I agree it's harsh but it would seem to me she was keeping it as a deterrent for housebreakers, not as a memento.

EDIT: Great minds!

[devogue]

Good. One less useless driver to worry about.

[charlou]

Do people normally keep heirlooms under their mattresses? I agree it's harsh but it would seem to me she was keeping it as a deterrent for housebreakers, not as a memento.

EDIT: Great minds!

Likewise.

Still, five years ... for a sweet little old lady?

Good. One less useless driver to worry about.

ahhh snap.

[The Dawktor]

Kept it under the mattress not in the box with the pictures and momentos though ..so she knew and thought of it as a weapon .

Yes- I think the mattress thing is the clincher!

[Feck]

And a son with a warrant out for him......

[Hermit]

Kept it under the mattress not in the box with the pictures and momentos though ..so she knew and thought of it as a weapon .

Yes- I think the mattress thing is the clincher!

Moreso, if the weapon was loaded.

What I object to is this: "...illegal possession of the firearm, an offence with a minimum five-year jail term under Scots law." Every time I hear of this sort of legislation, I am reminded of a report at a time when "truth in sentencing", which was quite the fashion in several Australian states at the time, limited a magistrate's or judge's discretion in determining the result of a guilty verdict. It was about an old woman who got caught attempting to steal one can of cat food from a shop. It was not for any cat. She intended to eat it herself.

The proper thing to do would have been to sentence the defendant to the sitting of the bench at most and prosecute whoever insisted on taking her to court in the first place for criminally antisocial behaviour, but of course the law did not allow that.