Arms and the man

The shooting community sometimes seems as though it is treated differently to the rest of society, argues Robin Scott

We live in an often mad, bad world where misdemeanors once thought sufficiently serious to warrant punishment now rarely raise an eyebrow.

Unless a crime is particularly shocking — or the sentence so ludicrously lenient — it seems we are becoming hardened to the “nasties” that society tosses our way. After all, where’s the point getting worked up over yet another set of appalling crime statistics if the police don’t appear particularly bothered about catching certain types of criminal or, when a bad apple is brought to justice, the courts go soft on sentencing?

Revelation

Mind you, the startling revelation that nearly 40,000 knife offences were recorded by police in just the first half of 2018 made me sit bolt upright at the breakfast table. It probably did you too.

And if that mind-boggling figure wasn’t bad enough, it transpires 5,000 repeat offenders caught carrying knives avoided jail under an automatic “two strikes and you’re out” rule introduced three years ago. Instead they were given fines, cautions or community service orders.

Can you imagine such leniency being shown to sporting gun owners if we stepped out of line and broke the law? No matter how exemplary our previous record and character, one — not two — strikes is all it takes to revoke a certificate and have our guns confiscated.

Yet unlike so many knife thugs who are clearly getting away with it, there is every chance we would end up behind bars should we stupidly threaten someone with violence.