Are we missing something
How about this?
Possession of a firearm is a very serious offence and it is aggravated when ammunition is with the firearm. Parliament has decreed that a person who unlawfully possesses a prohibited firearm such as a Glock pistol should be sentenced to a minimum term of five years imprisonment. That term may only be reduced if there are exceptional circumstances. It is obvious why this policy exists: there have been a number of atrocities such as Hungerford and Dunblane where someone with a gun has murdered innocent members of the public including children. That means that even where someone has no criminal intent, but he possesses a prohibited and unlicensed firearm, particularly where it is not secure, then the law treats him severely. Severe sentences are designed to act as a deterrent – that is what the public and Parliament demand.
It does not matter for these circumstances how you got the Glock – whether it was in fact given to you by grateful Iraqis or whether it came into your possession in some other way. The court concluded that you knew it was in your wardrobe – it was with your clothes and it is inconceivable that you did not know it was there. Equally it is inconceivable that you did not know you had such a large cache of ammunition. It was in a transparent box which also contained items of stationery and which you accepted was your admin box. The Court concluded that you accumulated this ammunition when acting as a range officer and you placed it in your admin box as you originally described to the police.
Your SSSA was not secure. It was a normal semi detached house in suburbia, and it was left empty for much of the time. This could have been a tempting target for burglars – and if there had been a burglary and the weapon and ammunition had been taken, the consequences could have been terrible and terrifying. A number of military weapons do somehow end up in the criminal community and any thing that makes that dangerous transfer easier – such as leaving a weapon and ammunition unsecured – must be deterred.
http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resource...ng-remarks.pdf