A career criminal should leave the country if wants to carry guns in public, a magistrate has suggested after the man was spotted on a Canberra bus with imitation firearms so realistic they fooled police.
"We know in Australia that we don't carry guns, and we know that we have licences," special magistrate Margaret Hunter said as she sentenced the unemployed Kim Leang Liv, 39, on Monday.
"We're not in America. If he wants to carry guns, maybe he should go there."
Liv will have to wait a while if he wants to act on that advice, given Ms Hunter imposed a jail term that will keep him behind bars until February 2023.
The offender, a Spence man with a criminal record Ms Hunter branded "extremely unenviable", pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges of unauthorised possession of firearms and resisting police.
Agreed facts show an ACTION bus was travelling through Civic about 9.38am on September 16, when a woman noticed another passenger, who was clad in a Batman beanie, had what looked like a handgun.
The concerned woman called police but this passenger, later identified as Liv, got off the bus on Marcus Clarke Street before officers could reach the vehicle.
Police began patrolling the area and, 10 minutes later, spotted Liv leaning on a pillar in Alinga Street.
The 39-year-old disobeyed directions to keep his hands out of his pockets and started walking away.
"I don't even have anything," he protested, trying to pull away from officers who grabbed his arms.
Told he was under arrest because he was suspected of carrying a firearm, Liv kicked out at police and continuously fought with them until more officers arrived to help handcuff him.
During the struggle, he reached towards the waistband of his jeans for what police described as a Glock-style handgun.
He was also found to be carrying a second such item in a holster on his left hip.
Officers at the scene initially believed both firearms to be genuine guns, thinking they looked and felt like police-issued weapons, but tests eventually confirmed they were in fact illegal gel blasters.
On Monday, prosecutor Mark Wadsworth told the ACT Magistrates Court these imitation weapons could have "fallen into the wrong hands" and been used by others to commit crimes if not for the arrest of Liv.
Mr Wadsworth also described Liv's prospects of rehabilitation as limited, having regard to his extensive criminal history.
Legal Aid lawyer Ewan Small told the court Liv had indicated an intention to give the gel blasters to a friend, and had claimed to have not understood it was unlawful to carry them.
The lawyer added that Liv, a father of three who had been addicted to drugs for most of his adult life, had told him he was "deeply ashamed and very apologetic about the way he behaved that day".
Mr Small asked that Ms Hunter sentence Liv, who had been behind bars on remand since his arrest, to a backdated jail term with any further time suspended immediately.
Ms Hunter rejected this invitation, finding Liv had to spend more time in custody before being released.
She called Liv's offending "extremely serious", and dismissed claims he had not known it was unlawful to be on a public bus with gel blasters.
The magistrate said while the items were not real guns, they were still considered illegal firearms and could be used to intimidate people even if they were not fired.
"In this country, we don't want people carrying guns," Ms Hunter said.
"They are very dangerous weapons, and the fear they instil in people is significant."
Ms Hunter ultimately sentenced Liv to a backdated term of seven months in jail, ordering that the balance be suspended after five months.
Having already served more than two months of the term, Liv will be released from the Alexander Maconochie Centre next February if he agrees to enter into a two-year good behaviour order.
