Posted on 03/25/2002 11:59:37 AM PST by 45Auto
A judge has called for a ban on cigarette lighters that resemble guns after a replica was used in two carjackings.
Lanray Busari, 19, from Hackney, east London, was sentenced to six years detention for taking two cars at gunpoint within the space of four days.
There were calls for the lighters to be banned after police shot dead Brixton man Derek Bennett as he brandished a replica in July last year.
The Old Bailey heard both of Busari's victims were terrified when confronted with the realistic silver gun-shaped lighter.
"In the current climate what the justification is for the manufacture and sale of such objects defeats me," said Judge Graham Boal.
"It must be glaringly obvious that such objects might be used in a way you chose to use yours.
"The sooner they are taken off the market the better."
Shooting fears
In the first armed robbery, in Springfield Road, Hackney on 20 September last year, Busari sped off in a Ford Fiesta.
He had made its owner, Mehmet Kose, get out under threat from the imitation firearm.
In the second, a blue BMW valued at £10,000 was taken from Imtiaz Ahmed in Mount Pleasant Lane, Hackney after the lighter was held to his temple. He thought he would be shot.
When he then tried to stop the car, Busari drove at him making him jump from his path.
"These are precisely the type of robberies which are so prevalent on the streets of the cities.
"That is why the courts will mete out punishment in order to deter other young men from following your example.
"You are still a young man and I pay such regard to that fact that I feel can be justified.
"But the unhappy fact is that increasingly robberies of this kind are being committed by young men of your age.
"The message must be spelt out loud and clear - that comparative youth cannot save robbers from sentences which are designed to deter.
"I believe this is the only sentence appropriate to the gravity of the offences."
What kind of two-bit criminal would risk jail over a Ford Fiesta?
Why aren't these judges talking about a ban on criminals. Or, how the penalties are going to be so strict that someone wouldn't even dare use a gun (or a fake gun for that matter) to perpetrate this type of crime. They are in the position to do something about crime in the first place! I just don't understand it.
So I guess we need to amend the famous statement, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" to "Guns don't kill people, people kill people, but fake guns help you rob people."
I am having trouble thinking of comparable stupidity in logic (though, I am sure much exists). Perhaps some of my FREEER friends can help list similarly stupid logic.
I think it's time for the liberals to call for a ban on soap and shoe polish (since they typically don't use either of those anyway).
They have apparently banned toothpaste already, though I am not sure if that ban was done for public safety reasons. :-0
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