[url]http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002260304,00.html[/url]
By JOHN ASKILL

TWO gun-mad teachers were behind bars last night after hiding a sickening arsenal of weapons at their homes.
The obsessed pair had hoarded their lethal collections despite a nationwide ban after the Dunblane massacre six years ago.

Cops found THIRTEEN handguns at the home of primary school teacher Thomas Hosty, 53. He also had two CS gas canisters, a stun gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Ex-secondary school master Borys Dmytrenko, 49, kept two loaded handguns by his bed.

Hosty was jailed for 12 months and Dymtrenko for six at Derby Crown Court after admitting possessing illegal firearms and ammunition.

They were trapped in a massive police operation designed to halt the rocketing supply of guns to Britain’s crime gangs.

Instead police found a network of middle-class gun nuts who had refused to hand in weapons after Dunblane — when madman Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and their teacher — and the Hungerford horror of 1987.

Many of the guns had been converted, some had their appearance changed and some had serial numbers shaved off.

They included a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver and a double-barrelled .22 Derringer pistol.

Hosty had kept one of the handguns fully loaded in a bedside cabinet at his home in Shaw, Greater Manchester.

He and retired teacher Dmytrenko, of Oldham, Greater Manchester, were members of the Diggle gun club in Oldham.

Last night a police source said: “We were shocked that two teachers, one at a primary school, should be involved given the horrors of Dunblane.

“But what is more shocking is that this appears to be the tip of the iceberg. We are finding weapons turning up all over the place as a result of this investigation.

“Previously intelligence has suggested weapons coming in from Eastern Europe. But many of the handguns used in gangland killings and murders across the UK have originally come from sources like this within this country.

“We are sure that a great many firearms are still being held illegally by gun obsessives such as these and that is obviously a danger to the public.”

He added: “Hosty said he had guns to protect his family because there had been a rise in crime in his area.

“But there had been no more than a handful of crimes in the past two years.”

Four other men appeared in court on firearms charges. Fireman Howard Foster, 42, of Halifax, West Yorks, got a six-month suspended sentence. Engineer James Whitehead, 64, of Shaw — who police said converted many of the guns — will be sentenced later.

Anton Ramsden 60, of Shaw, and John Hoarden 51, of Macclesfield, Cheshire, were given community service orders.

Today Manchester, tomorrow Boston.  Soon the rest of the US.  

Do you think the reporter was fair and unbiased?  I would say he was about as unbiased as the typical LA Times or Washington Post reporter.

WTF does he mean by "converted?" It almost sounded like he was trying to hint that they were converted to MG's? But the guns in that pic were bolt guns and revo's for the most part.
Fucking Brits.

Yeah, what does converted refer to? Is it just me, or do you guys see a few more that 13 handguns in the pic?
I read the copied version first. The article sounded 'normal' but the linked version seemed to be more biased. Must be the pics and captions.
Unbelievable.

ByteTheBullet  )-:

"Converted" means from non-firing (replica, or DEWAT) to functional.  There are apparently armorers over there doing that.  They're converting some air pistols to single-shot .22's and the like as well.

However, given that the Sun is a tabloid much like our National Enquirer, and the fact that I did a Newshub search and the Sun is the only "newspaper" reporting this "story" I supect that it's bogus.  Illustrative of the mindset over there, though.

"sickening" is right

The article, that is.

HUNDREDS of rounds of ammunition?  BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!