Why is it fucked up - its merely procedural. He has not been sentenced yet?
Even if he walks away with a fine of 10 lbs, he got a weapons possession conviction that will be on his record (yeah that's a really great thing to be walking around with next time he gets stopped by the cops or applies for a job), was arrested and confined, forced to go through court proceedings-- all for doing the right thing. He did absolutely nothing wrong. This is completely unjust and total bullshit, and the British injustice system should be fuckin ashamed of itself for its perfunctory application of the law, as should the dumbfuck legislators who wrote the law. In fact, whoever wrote the law should go away to prison for 5 years.
What the article dosen't state is that the mandatory five year sentence is rarely handed down.Most of those convicted of being in possession of a firearm get 18 months to two years.Its a bit like the three strikes and you get life saga - "You will be sentenced to life imprisonment and will serve a minimum sentence of four years".I should imagine in this soldiers case he will get a conditional discharge or token fine.
See my response to IsLame above. You want to act like it's no big deal, but this guy should not have lost his liberty for even a second (which he did when he was arrested), should not have been forced to waste time and money on going to court, and should not have to have this bullshit conviction on his record.
He did nothing wrong! Why the hell anybody here is even suggesting this is anything less than a horrible injustice is beyond me.
What if you or IsLame found a gun in your backyard, gave it to police, got arrested, convicted and faced a 5-year sentence, whether you thought 5 years was likely or not? Would you still be acting like it wasn't a big deal if it was YOU?