Homemade gun nets 6-year sentence
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/09/2024 (427 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A judge handed a man a six-year jail sentence after he was found guilty of possessing a homemade gun in Brandon.
Judge Patrick Sullivan gave his decision in Brandon provincial court on Friday morning after hearing sentencing submissions last month for Jorg Rautenberg, who was found guilty of possessing a loaded, restricted firearm and possessing a weapon while prohibited from doing so.
The gun was found by Brandon police officers after a traffic stop in March 2021. Rautenberg was a passenger in a vehicle. During the stop, officers observed the grip of a handgun at Rautenberg’s feet.
The weapon was a toy gun — an airsoft gun — that had been modified with functional gun parts to create a weapon that was capable of firing real bullets.
As it was a “homemade” gun, it had no serial number and therefore no way to trace it.
The judge noted that the weapon was capable of firing multiple bullets with a single pull of the trigger, which “effectively (gave) it some limited capacity as a fully automatic pistol,” he said.
At the time that the weapon was found, Rautenberg was bound by a lifetime firearm prohibition that stemmed from a criminal record with multiple convictions, including break and enter, possession for the purpose of trafficking and forcible confinement.
During sentencing submissions, the Crown asked for a six-year sentence, while defence argued for a two-and-a-half-year sentence.
Sullivan said the fact that the gun had been modified to make it more dangerous and was being transported in a vehicle without proper storage made the offence more serious.
“In my view, this makes it a true crime gun and a situation that steers your offending to the more serious end of the spectrum,” the judge said.
He also said that even though the gun was not pointed at anyone or used for an offence, those facts did not make the offence of possessing it less serious.
A pre-sentence report, which was cited by the judge, noted Rautenberg was at a high risk to re-offend.
Sullivan said the primary purpose of the sentence had to be deterrence and denunciation and ultimately sided with the Crown, imposing a six-year sentence.
He also ordered that Rautenberg be subject to another lifetime firearms prohibition.
After credit for time served, Rautenberg will spend about another eight and a half months in custody.
» gmortfield@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @geena_mortfield