More people showed up at the small ICAHV protest in Springfield – looks like 50 people here or the 350 in Springfield v the 10,000+ at IGOLD or the 100,000+ here in Houston NRA con.
News
I heard on the radio this morning about some vile person with a huge cache of weapons that may have been trying to assassinate the First Lady…
Curious, I tracked down this article: “Sniper Rifle, Military Grade Guns Found In California Student’s Trunk”
Wow, that’s a nice rifle. I followed the links until I got to the local station’s website: “SDSU student arrested after weapons cache discovery.”
There are three separate videos on the local station site, but it boiled down to a 20-year-old with fake ID trying to score some booze, and he had guns in his trunk. The MILITARY-GRADE guns were:
- 4 Mosin-Nagant rifles (2 with the extra scary bayonets) – Military Grade, circa WWII.
- GSG-22 – Military Grade, circa never.
- A double barrelled coach gun, not at all a military weapon as far as I know.
- a 1911 of some variety – Military Grade, 1911-present.
- an SKS – Military Grade, cold war
- Puşcă Semiautomată cu Lunetă, or PSL – Military Grade, 1970s designated marksman’s rifle, used only by the military of Bangladesh according to Wikipedia.
Assuming he bought them a year or two ago, that entire “cache” probably doesn’t even add up to the cost of the rifle in the top photo.
You can spot gun cases in the video, discarded in the background, so he was likely transporting them legally. It’s only illegal to buy a handgun under the age of 21 in California. The minimum age to own one is 18. According to the second video, Moore was charged with 3 weapons violations: Possessing an Assualt Weapon with a Detachable magazine, one with a Flash Suppressor, and one with a Thumbhole stock. The Mosins, the shotgun, and the 1911 aren’t even close to running afoul of California’s “Assault Weapons” Ban. The GSG-22 is exempt because it’s a .22. The SKS is one of those guns that scares liberals, but in California it is only banned if it has a detachable magazine. This leaves any possible trouble to the PSL.
The PSL has a special place in my heart since it was the first rifle I ever bought on my own. It’s an over-sized AK, and its functionality and accuracy reflect that. Mine isn’t a tack-driver by any means, but it runs well.
It’s hard to tell from grainy pictures on the video, but the PSL looks to have its stock muzzle device on it – a muzzle brake. The thumb-hole stock is only illegal in the presence of a detachable magazine, so the big question becomes, “Did the PSL have a bullet-button?”
Again it’s hard to tell from the grainy video, but the lighter metal may be part of a bullet button.
View of a PSL with a bullet button from the left side.
If the rifle has a bullet-button, none of the weapon related charges will hold.
He’s still on the hook for 4 drinking related charges, though.
(update: user “1 2 many” of calguns.net was kind enough to let me use his photo. http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=509314)
Though we never met in meatspace, you were a fellow conspirator and shall be missed.
From the local birdcage liner:
A 50-year-old man who was attacked with a machete at Shamrock Motel on Friday was taken to St. John’s Hospital with a life-threatening cut to the left side of his neck, police said.
Fortunately there wasn’t a gun involved – someone could have been hurt!
It seems I'm late to the party again, though I first heard about this on the 5 o'clock news.
Imagine the complete uproar if the AP wanted to publish a list of every homosexual in the state; or every African-American. This is being portrayed in the media as if the idea actually warrants debate. Instead of one of the special protected classes, however, it’s gun owners that are being targeted. (Source: Chicago Tribune)
Through the Freedom of Information Act, The Associated Press requested in September the names of each FOID cardholder in the state and the expiration date of each card.
The Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan has gotten herself involved, her office releasing a letter stating the Illinois State Police should release the names, as it does not pose a danger to privacy. Thankfully the ISP are refusing to release the information and legislation has been drafted to head this off.
My memory is sparking on a similar issue a while back in Indiana.
Sure, the information won’t contain addresses or phone numbers. It doesn’t need to. Suddenly gun-owners start running into all kinds of problems.
A couple applies for a home mortgage, but the anti-gun banker subtly checks this new list of names and decides that a loan is too risky for those kinds of people.
A young kid from a hunting family applies for college at a large liberal institution; the administration checks their list and decides that this budding young academic doesn’t quite make the cut for certain scholarships.
Nothing about this move is about safety. Nobody with a criminal record will have their name released. This is, at best, a publicity stunt to drum up news – a waste of taxpayer dollars.
