Elderly British Man Jailed for Collection of over 100 Illegal Firearms
A 74 year old, self-proclaimed history buff, has been jailed in the UK when his collection of nearly 200 firearms was discovered after a fire at his home.
Paul Bushell’s collection was discovered by firefighters back in May when his home in Gillingham, Kent caught fire, while he was at a friend’s 70th birthday lunch. On hearing about the fire he allegedly told a friend “I have done something wrong. I might be in a lot of trouble.” It took police teams four days to complete their search and catalogue approximately 160 firearms and a stock of ammunition – luckily, none of which was touched by the fire.
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Susan Smith said: “Bushell had a staggering collection of guns which if they were to get into the wrong hands could have been catastrophic”
The impressive cache of weapons included everything from 19th century pocket revolvers to an Ingram M10 submachine gun, a Sten gun, various patterns of AK and even an Armalite AR-10. None of the guns were secured in cabinets or safes and they were found throughout Bushell’s home – some of them loaded.
Bushell, a grandfather and a regular volunteer with the charity Samaritans, pleaded guilty to seven offences of possessing prohibited weapons and six of possessing ammunition without a valid firearms certificate. His family said that his collection had grown to become an obsession but that he had no connections with crime or the dark web.
The sentencing judge told Bushell “‘You did everything you could to enhance your collection without due regard for the real importance of complying with the law,” concluding that “It doesn’t take an enormous amount of imagination to see the risk that would take place within the community as a whole if your home had ever been burgled.”
Despite his defence pleading for a lenient sentence due to the defendant’s advanced age, it seems the judge felt Bushell had to be made an example and was sentenced to five years in prison – the minimum for the offences committed. Despite the likely destruction of some of Bushell’s collection Kent Police hope to retain some for museum display.
Managing Editor: TheFirearmBlog.com & Overt Defense.com. Matt is a British historian specialising in small arms development and military history. He has written several books and for a variety of publications in both the US and UK. Matt is also runs The Armourer's Bench, a video series on historically significant small arms. Here on TFB he covers product and current military small arms news. Reach Matt at: matt@thefirearmblog.com
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So the Judge made an example by giving the minimum mandatory sentence for a firearms offense? I think someone put their brain on pause when the typed that little gem. He will be out in 12 months at most.
Lets put this into proper perspective. A a lot of these full auto guns would be totally illegal to own in the US and he would have been lucky to get such a light sentence had this collection been found there, as he is guilty of multiple infractions of the NFA regulations with each offense carrying up to 10 years. In the UK he will be out in 12 months.
This reminds me of when TFB reported on the polish guy who was sentenced in the UK for having three guns in his car. As if it is perfectly OK for a Mexican to just drive across the US border into the country with three unregistered handguns under his seats and then drive across three state boundary's.