Brothers Aamir and Yunus Hanif have been sentenced for possession of and conspiracy to sell illegal firearms in Shepherd’s Bush, west London.
27-year-old Aamir and 26-year-old Yunus, both of Bentworth Road, W12, were sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court for conspiracy to sell or transfer a prohibited weapon and conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited ammunition.
Yunus Hanif was also sentenced for possessing a prohibited firearm, possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate, and having an imitation firearm in a public place, according to a Metropolitan Police statement.
Critics of Great Britain’s draconian gun laws, which effectively prohibit the possession of handguns and semi-automatic rifles and require all firearms owners to register and acquire certificates — which are not issued for the purposes of personal or home defence — may point to the brothers’ activities as further evidence that, as gun rights proponents in the United States often say, “when guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns”.
“This operation successfully removed firearms from London’s streets. The evidence against the brothers was so great that they had to plead guilty,” commented Detective Sergeant Mark Breeze for the Metropolitan Police.
“We will continue to work with other units across the Met to arrest those involved in violent crime, whether that be committing the crime or supplying the weapons involved.
“The Hanif brothers will today start a lengthy prison sentence, which is entirely appropriate following their actions.”
The police officer’s description of the brothers’ sentences is questionable: both received nine years and four months for conspiracy to sell or transfer a prohibited weapon and nine years and four months for conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited ammunition, with Yusuf also receiving 45 months for possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate, three years for having an imitation firearm in a public place, and seven-and-a-half months for possessing a prohibited firearm — but all of these terms are “to be served concurrently”; i.e. at the same time.
This means that the pair will in practical terms serve only a single nine years and fourth months sentence apiece, with all the other terms being essentially meaningless.
Even this overstates the severity of their punishment, as criminals handed standard determinate sentences in Britain are released from prison on licence halfway through their terms — meaning the brothers will more than likely be in custody for only a little over four-and-a-half years.