‘Drugs, guns not great mix’ father told

A HOBART man who had been starting his car with scissors before he was nabbed by police with a bevy of weapons – including a loaded brass pen gun and a homemade firearm and silencer – has avoided jail time. Marc Craig Jackman, 34, was high on ice and cannabis when he was caught by police on June 18 this year with the pen gun, a compound bow, a homemade double-barrelled firearm and homemade silencer in his car, the Hobart Magistrates Court heard on Thursday. He was also found with a pair of scissors in his possession because he was using them to start his car after “he lost the keys”. Jackman, who pleaded guilty to a number of drugs and firearms charges, avoided jail and was also granted permission to take his compound bow home. The court was told that he was caught after police saw two cars driving in close convoy at Chigwell – one of them carrying a ute-load of firewood. They approached the two drivers after they pulled over, with Jackman admitting he was driving unlicensed because he hadn’t renewed it after a period of suspension. He also admitted to police he had a firearm in his car. When police searched the vehicle, they found a small amount of cannabis, a pouch of 0.22 ammunition, the pen gun with one round of ammunition loaded inside it – the most it could take, a glass pipe, a plastic bong, a silver knife, a compound bow found in a firearms case, the homemade firearm and silencer, and 12 gauge ammunition. Jackman, who told police he had a knife to skin animals for food for his dogs when he went into the bush for target shooting with his bow, also tested positive in his oral fluid to the drugs ice and cannabis. He said he had only just bought the pen gun a few days earlier. “Drugs and guns are not a great mix,” Magistrate Chris Webster said, before making a forfeiture order for all firearms, ammunition, drugs and smoking implements. He fined the father-of-one $672 and suspended him from driving for nine months. Jackman was also sentenced to four weeks in jail, but the term was fully suspended for two years provided he is of good behaviour.