“A deadly DIY shotgun was harboured for years by a teenager who says he was given it to ‘look after’ when he was just 14-years-old,” manchestereveningnews.co.uk reports. “The 12-bore metal weapon was put together by an amateur gunsmith – but is powerful enough to kill.” Kill, I tell you, kill! Only 19-year-old Conor Tipler didn’t kill anyone with the homemade gun. Didn’t point it at anyone either. But that didn’t stop Manchester’s most senior judge, Judge David Stockdale QC, from locking-up young master Tipler for three – count them three years. If you think that’s bad . . .
Tipler is the second person locked up this month for offences connected to improvised ‘slap’ or ‘slam fire’ guns.
Last week, Michael Sierotko, 24, from Glossop, was jailed for nine years for making a ‘weapon from step-by-step YouTube instructions that left a drug dealer fighting for life . . .
Sending him down, Judge Stockdale said: “This was an absolutely lethal piece of equipment.
“Taken apart it would look to the casual observer as being nothing more than two random pieces of tubing – which makes weapons of this sort all the more sinister.”
Sinister weapons. Wasn’t she a nightclub singer in the 40’s? But I don’t think weapons can be sinister, can they? Wouldn’t that ascribe them some sort of intent (an impossibility for an inanimate object)? I guess that’s what happens when you ban guns: they take on a life of their own. Even as lives are destroyed as a result.