A GUN owner should not be made the scapegoat for his bullied son, who took his dad's revolver to school and fired a shot, an Adelaide court has been told.
The man's lawyer, Octavia Henson, said her client believed he was the only person who knew the location of the key to the gun safe, but his 13-year-old son found it in his father's underwear drawer.
Ms Henson asked Judge Paul Rice not to record a conviction against her client or take away his firearms licence, as he wanted to continue hunting on his brother's rural property.
The man, who cannot be named as it would identify his son, appeared in the South Australian District Court on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old has pleaded guilty to possessing an unregistered .32 calibre Smith & Wesson without a licence and failing to store its ammunition away from the revolver.
Last year his son was put on a good behaviour bond and was spared a conviction, after taking the revolver to school and firing it at a fence.
Ms Henson said the father, who was "very remorseful", ashamed and embarrassed, had firearm licences for other weapons but not for the Smith & Wesson because of financial reasons.
He had a "sentimental attachment" to the revolver which he inherited from his grandmother.
He acknowledged he should not have kept the ammunition in the safe with the revolver.
"This was a once-off, a bad error of judgment," Ms Henson said, adding that he should not be made a "scapegoat for another".
But Judge Rice said he would not divorce the father's actions from his son's, as his keeping the gun separate from the ammunition would have avoided "something like this happening".
The crown prosecutor said general deterrence was an important factor, submitting that the man should receive a suspended jail term.
She also called for his firearms licence to be suspended indefinitely, a move Ms Henson opposed.
While the man was happy to surrender his guns, he bonded with his family by going hunting on his brother's property, she said.
If the licence was suspended, she said it should be for a set time.
He will be sentenced on February 1.
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