John,
The location of the gun (in a cupboard in a bedroom) and ammo (under the bed I think) suggest the 'forgetting' mitigation maybe, shall we say, have been 'maximised' and not entirely believable (but not without some merit either).
I'm glad he's out, but mainly due to the non-legal wider view that we are not locking up far far more evil characters so on balance, given his otherwise blemish free character, it just feels wrong. He did however commit a serious firearm 'lapse of judgement' and should rightly be in some trouble for that. I'm not sure I agree he should now be looking to squash his conviction completely - I think that's pushing his luck too far. I feel he should admit the whole thing has been regrettable and look forward/move on.
There are mitigations that clearly help his case, but at the end of the day the gun/ammo should not have been where it was.
I would hope that a precedent is not being set and others should take note that you can't take the p*ss with firearms and can expect a serious sentence. Nightingale was lucky - and I'm OK with that - but this should be a visible wake up call to others.
I actually would expect an hardening of the line taken in such cases - the nightingale case is so high profile you can't pretend that being flippant with weapons will somehow be tolerated.
Last edited by JFZ90; 30th Nov 2012 at 12:04.