JUDGE Martin Blackmore appears to have confused views on our firearms laws “Bad career move”, (The Border Mail, August 16).
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He told Benjamin Vagg that the court had to send a strong message over the manufacture of pen pistols, items he described as easily concealable and very deadly which made their manufacture a very serious matter.
He also told the defendant there was no evidence they were for sale, and then pondered why the father of three would make them.
One does not have to be a Rhodes scholar to work out that a person who goes to the trouble of making such an illegal weapon was not doing so for the good of society.
Australia has strong firearms laws for a good reason — to keep weapons under control and out of the hands of criminals.
Law-abiding citizens are allowed to own certain firearms, but have to comply with stringent laws about the sort of weapons they own, the number and their storage.
But no one can get permission to own and carry a pen pistol — not even police officers.
If legal gun owners break the law, they can, and should, expect trouble.
So to have an illegal weapon like a pen pistol means a jail term is the only option open to any court.
Whether 20 months was a harsh enough penalty is open to debate — whether or not the man charged was of impeccable character or whether his brain was addled by drugs.
I feel sorry for Mr Vagg’s family.
But he is, by all accounts, not a dill and so knew fully too well what he was doing.
I, and every member of our community, should hope the case sends a message to other mechanically minded people who might be tempted to make such an illegal weapon.
It is not worth the trouble.
— KEITH McDONALD,
Wodonga