Man Convicted of Having Air Weapons in Public Place

A man caught with two air rifles in the back of his car has been ordered to complete unpaid work.

Chris Davies, 47, admitted two charges of possession of a firearm during a recent appearance at South Cumbria Magistrates' Court.

For whatever reason, police officers found the weapons in his vehicle parked in Bowness.

Under section 19 of the Firearms Act 1968, it is an offence to possess an air weapon in a public place without lawful authority or reasonable excuse. This is a summary offence with a maximum penalty of 6 month's imprisonment.

If challenged, the legal onus is on the person in possession of the air weapon to prove that they have lawful authority or reasonable excuse.

Davies represented himself in court and told the Magistrates: "I had borrowed the guns; we were chasing rats around.

"We have since got pest control involved.

"There was no malicious intent with the weapons. It was just to shoot the rats."

Davies told Magistrates that he thought possession of the weapons was legal because they were hidden in his locked car, but with the benefit of hindsight he accepts that he has committed an offence.

"I honestly didn't think there was anything wrong with them being there, nobody could see them, but I understand now that the law still interprets that as being an offence," he conceded.

Magistrates heard Davies had last been before the courts in 2014 and was released from custody in 2015.

He told the court: "I've not been in any trouble since then; last time I was in custody I was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and since then I've been getting treatment and tackling my problems.

"Whereas before I might have reacted to a situation without thinking now I have ways to challenge and plan my behaviour."

Davies explained that his work commitments would make curfew impractical, but he was happy to complete unpaid work if it was made to fit around his day job. The Probation Service agreed that unpaid work would be a suitable punishment.

Davies was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work, pay £85 costs and £85 victim surcharge.

Magistrates also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the two air rifles.

As he left the court Davies said: "Thanks for treating me so fairly."

Reading this article I can't help but feel that Davies has been a little bit unfortunate to fall foul of the legislation.

Had he told the police officers "I've just borrowed these air rifles and I'm now on my way home to shoot rats with them" then they may well have considered that a perfectly reasonable excuse for their possession and he may not have been prosecuted.

Air weapons are, of course, very dangerous if used in an irresponsible manner. In a rural place like Bowness they are regularly used as a tool of the trade by a lot of responsible, law-abiding people.

Tool of the trade or not, it's important that people realise that they must have a good excuse for having their air rifle with them in a public place at any particular time - for example, a pest controller would only have a reasonable excuse for having an air rifle in public if they were actually engaged in a pest control job at that time (or travelling directly to or from such a job).