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If the FBI will “mislead” to seize assets, why wouldn’t they do the same to take guns? By Tom Knighton

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File
When I was a kid, the FBI was the agency of countless heroes of television and film. As a kid who loved both, the FBI represented the good guys in my mind. It stayed that way for ages, too, because while the ATF or DEA might have done some shady stuff to make arrests, I could trust the FBI would do the right thing.

God, I was stupid.

By now, we know some of the hinky stuff the FBI has done recently, but it seems there’s more.

It seems the bureau misled a judge in order to seize $86 million worth of private property from a private vault in Los Angeles

The privacy invasion was vast when FBI agents drilled and pried their way into 1,400 safe-deposit boxes at the U.S. Private Vaults store in Beverly Hills.

They rummaged through personal belongings of a jazz saxophone player, an interior designer, a retired doctor, a flooring contractor, two Century City lawyers and hundreds of others.

Agents took photos and videos of pay stubs, password lists, credit cards, a prenuptial agreement, immigration and vaccination records, bank statements, heirlooms and a will, court records show. In one box, agents found cremated human remains.

Eighteen months later, newly unsealed court documents show that the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles got their warrant for that raid by misleading the judge who approved it.

They omitted from their warrant request a central part of the FBI’s plan: Permanent confiscation of everything inside every box containing at least $5,000 in cash or goods, a senior FBI agent recently testified.

The FBI’s justification for the dragnet forfeiture was its presumption that hundreds of unknown box holders were all storing assets somehow tied to unknown crimes, court records show.

So they just assumed everyone who used what amounted to a safe deposit box was doing so for illicit reasons? They thought the private vault company was shady and suspect it of being involved in criminal undertakings, but it’s clear they acted as if literally everyone who used it was criminal as well.

“But Tom, this is a Second Amendment site. What does that have to do with guns, gun rights, or gun control?” you might ask; quite fairly, to be honest.

My point in bringing this up is simple. If the FBI honestly thought they could get away with something like this by apparently and essentially lying to the judge, why would anyone believe law enforcement wouldn’t lie to a judge to, say, get a red flag order issued?

Similar to how the order in this case was issued, red flag orders don’t require the judge to talk to the individual. All police really have to do is tell the judge that you’re a threat for whatever reason and poof! There go your gun rights.

Oh, you might get them back, but how long will you have to wait? Why should you have to wait?

Look, I still remain convinced that most law enforcement just wants to catch actual bad guys. However, sometimes they get fixated on the wrong things, and sometimes those who go into law enforcement are the bad guys. They’re human, with all that entails.

If they’ll lie to essentially steal $86 million in private property and claim they just might be involved in some unknown criminal activity, why should anyone trust any of their rights to a system that could yank them away just as easily?

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Cops

ATF ‘Brace Amnesty’ Is an Unworkable Entrapment that Dictates Terms of Surrender

The ATF “brace amnesty” is a study of how a bureaucracy can maneuver around elected officials, in this case, to ban and register pistol-braced firearms. You either cough up all data on yourself and your gun or face jail and exorbitant fines.

ATF 'Brace Amnesty' Is an Unworkable Entrapment that Dictates Terms of Surrender

“The Biden-Harris Administration and the ATF are cracking down on your right to own a pistol,” Gun Owners of America declares. “The upcoming ‘Amnesty Registration’ rule for pistol braces will facilitate the banning and registration of millions of pistol-braced weapons.”

Owners will be faced with two choices, GOA warns, “Give the ATF your name, Social Security number, address, phone number, email, payment information, FINGERPRINTS, as well as the make, model, and serial number of your firearm – and provide photographic evidence of your compliance OR Face jail time and pay a $250,000 fine.”

Our Story Thus Far

How things got to this point is a case study in the Bureau usurping powers to effectively “legislate” through often contradictory rule changes. Nowhere has this been more apparent than with braces, and ATF’s on again/off again reversals on their “legality.”

“ATF initially welcomed the advent of pistol arm braces,” Rep. Matt Gaetz noted in a June 2020 letter cosigned by half-a-dozen Republican colleagues and sent to ATF, to then Attorney General William Barr (see Firearms News, Aug. 2020, Issue #15). “In 2012, ATF correctly determined that the attachment of arm braces to large pistol platforms does not constitute the manufacture of a short-barreled rifle … subject to registration requirements under the National Firearms Act…”

They repeated that assessment in a 2014 advisory to a Colorado police department, noting “certain firearm accessories such as the SIG Stability Brace have not been classified by [Firearms Technology Branch] as shoulder stocks and, therefore, using the brace improperly does not constitute a design change.” Then in 2015, everything changed.

“Any person who intends to use a handgun stabilizing brace as a shoulder stock on a pistol (having a rifled barrel under 16 inches in length or a smooth bore firearm with a barrel under 18 inches in length) must first file an ATF Form 1 and pay the applicable tax because the resulting firearm will be subject to all provisions of the NFA,” ATF declared in its “Open Letter on the Redesign of ‘Stabilizing Braces.”

Not so, a 2017 press release from SB Tactical asserted. “To the extent that the January 2015 Open Letter implied or has been construed to hold that incidental, sporadic, or situational ‘use’ of an arm-brace (in its original approved configuration) equipped firearm from a firing position at or near the shoulder was sufficient to constitute ‘redesign,’ such interpretations are incorrect and not consistent with ATF’s interpretation of the statute or the manner in which it has historically been enforced.’”

“Unbeknownst to the general public, ATF has ordained in private determination letters that it considers ‘any firearm with a length of pull over 13-1/2 inches to be designed to be fired from the shoulder,’  thereby making it a short-barreled rifle,” Gaetz continued in his letter. “However, ATF has also privately proclaimed that even firearms under this length of pull can be classified as a short-barreled rifle, if ATF identifies other (and often unspecified) applicable ‘indicators.’”

So why all the back-and-forth, and why is ATF getting ready to pull this new and unheard of “amnesty” now? Recalling the vulgar joke about why a dog licks itself, the answer here seems to be the same: Because they can.

But Can They? Really?

“NFA Division personnel will use the information collection on ATF Form 1 to determine the legality of the application under Federal, State and local law,” ATF states in its Office of Management and Budget Justification.

“Oh my, this may break the NFRTR [National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record],” a friend and colleague responded in an email group of firearms and firearms law advisors I regularly corresponded with. We’re basically a group that compares notes, offers insights and occasionally acts in concert, prompting U.S. attorneys defending ATF against one of our Freedom of Information Act requests to disparage and dismiss us as “a tangled web of connections between a small cadre of firearms activists…”

My fellow “small cadre” member is not far wrong.

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ATF’s OMB Supporting Statement assumes its “total annual IC [information collection] burden is 102,808 hours.”  That’s 2,570 40-hour weeks.

“In fiscal year (FY) 2020, ATF had 5,082 employees, including 2,653 special agents and 760 industry operations investigators,” ATF notes. How many of those will be put on Brace duty to clear out the backlog is unclear, especially since before this all the rage has been to complain about how they’re understaffed and take forever to perform traces because the mean old Republicans won’t let them put everything into one big registration database (allegedly necessitating some creative cellphone camera work by lawbreaking inspectors caught on video snapping bound book pics).

Is Help on the Way?

“The President has already proposed to increase funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) by 13% so ATF can hire new agents and investigators,” the White House announced in July as part of its “The Safer America Plan.” So, what are we really talking about in terms of making all this doable?

“Currently, there are at least four million braced pistols in the United States,” investigative journalist John Crump writes on AmmoLand. Crump is the reporter who broke this story after he uncovered and analyzed ATF’s budget request. His number estimate comports with ATF’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which claims “Anecdotal evidence from the manufacturers of the affected ‘stabilizing braces’ indicates that the manufacturers have sold between 3 million and 7 million ‘stabilizing braces’ between the years 2013 to 2020 or over the course of eight years. For the purposes of this analysis, ATF uses 3 million as the low estimate and primary estimate of affected ‘stabilizing braces.’”

“It remains to be seen if the system can withstand millions of additional form submissions,” Crump observes. “This influx of millions of new applications for the ATF Pistol Brace registration would also backlog any other forms submitted through the same processing.”

GOA, for its part, kicks that number up by an order of magnitude, noting “According to the ATF itself, completing a Form 1 takes approximately four hours. That means, the owners of up to 40,000,000 braced weapons will spend up to a collective 160,000,000 hours registering their lawfully acquired firearms … “

“The ATF reportedly processed 512,315 National Firearms Act forms in 2020,” GOA relates from ATF’s OMB statement. “At that rate – assuming no further backlog and assuming all affected gun owners comply with gun registration – it would take the ATF over 78 years to process all the pistol registration forms.”

Curious as to why there is such a huge difference between GOA’s and other estimates, Firearms News contacted Director of Federal Affairs Aiden Johnston, who cited Congressional Research Service’s “Handguns, Stabilizing Braces, and Related Components.”

“While there are no available statistics to gauge authoritatively the number of stabilizing braces already made and sold in the United States, unofficial estimates suggest that there are between 10 and 40 million stabilizing braces and similar components already in civilian hands, either purchased as accessories or already attached to firearms made at home or at the factory,” the report states. Since CRS is the Library of Congress’ official research group working “primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff,” GOA chose to use the same data lawmakers rely on.

Noting how the citizen disarmament powers-that-be operate, it’s not out of line to anticipate worst-case scenarios where what they can get today metastasizes into “everything” tomorrow.

But There’s a Bigger Issue at Play

“MAYBE what it will do is get some Member(s) of Congress to request GAO to do a forensic audit of the NFRTR to determine its accuracy and reliability,” another one of my “small cadre” advisors chimed in, pointing out the elephant in the room that “amnesty” proponents don’t much want to talk about.

There is much to talk about, but there’s much to read about first. One data-and history-rich resource is the  NFA Owners Association website, and for the purposes of this article, a new entry titled “Amnesty: Documents and ATF activities relevant to §207(b) and § 207(d) of the Gun Control Act of 1968” offers many relevant insights. Foremost among those is a 2005 CRS report (the research group discussed above) by analyst William J. Krouse titled “ATF’s National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record: Issues Regarding Data Accuracy, Completeness and Reliability.”

Or to put it in the vernacular: Garbage In/Garbage Out. And it’s been that way for a long time.

“We continuously discover discrepancies and inaccuracies in the registration file which, if discovered during trial, would destroy the future credibility of such evidence,” the then-NFA Branch Chief admitted in a 1975 internal memorandum. “If the court should discover that our negligence caused an unwarranted arrest and trial, the resultant loss of public trust would be irreparable.”

Things had not improved 20 years later when another NFA Branch Chief made a telling admission in an ATF “roll call” training session.

“Let me say that when we testify in court, we testify that the database (NFRTR) is 100% accurate. That’s what we testify to, and we will always testify to that,” he declared. “As you probably well know, that may not be 100% true.”

There’s a word for that, isn’t there? A legal term that starts with “p”…?

“Stephen Halbrook – an attorney who specializes in firearms law – has advised that in NFA-related criminal proceeedings the defense should file discovery motions for U.S. government documents… that he maintains cast a reasonable doubt as to whether the NFRTR database is accurate, complete, and reliable,” the CRS report noted.

Halbrook’s not the only one.

“In a major victory for those of us arguing that the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) is insufficient for criminal proceedings, Dr. Fritz Scheuren, ‘the’ statistician in the United States (possibly the world), today informed the United States District Court, Western District of Oklahoma … that the NFRTR is insufficient for criminal proceedings,” Prince Law Blog reported in 2008. “[T]his is a MAJOR defeat for the BATFE, who, over the years, has argued that although the NFRTR is flawed, it still can be used in criminal proceedings.”

That was the case of US v. Larry Douglas Friesen, pitting the feds against an Oklahoma City attorney and concealed carry course instructor accused of illegal machinegun possession and lying to authorities, with five counts returned by a grand jury and Friesen facing serious prison time if convicted.

The lies and inaccuracies cited above were brought to bear in the “Defendant’s Motion in Limine to Prohibit Government’s Introduction or Reference to Records Maintained in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.”

For those unfamiliar with the term, Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute tells us a Motion in Limine is “A pretrial motion asking that certain evidence be found inadmissible, and that it not be referred to or offered at trial.”

It worked, and an interested private citizen who had filed a FOIA request yielding much of the documentation the successful motion relied on  — and incidentally, a “senior founding member” of our “small cadre” – tells Firearms News “Here’s the Motion in Limine that got four felonies plea bargained down to a single $25 misdemeanor.”

The government really doesn’t want this widely known.

It’s a Trap!

Admiral Ackbar’s famous epiphany from Star Wars is echoed by Washington Gun Law President and attorney William Kirk in a YouTube video asking “Is Pistol Brace Amnesty About to Become the Biggest Trap Ever Set?”

“When examining the plain language used by the ATF on three important ATF documents, we’ve come to not only a conclusion that many of you have arrived at already, but we think we know how the trap will be sprung,” Kirk claims in the video description. “If true, this will be one of the greatest acts of deceit by any modern government.”

How?

“The dots are connected from three documents,” Kirk explains, identifying the ATF Budget Request, ATF Form 1, Application to Make and Register a Firearm, “as it currently exists and what could be added to it,” and ATF “worksheet” Form 4999 (FACTORING CRITERIA FOR RIFLED BARREL WEAPONS WITH ACCESSORIES* commonly referred to as “STABILIZING BRACES”).

“That is the form that ATF is going to be used to score an AR pistol to determine is it really an AR pistol or a federally-regulated short barrel rifle, buying you a $200 tax stamp,” Kirk elaborates, noting how photos and fingerprints will be used in the determination of if a weapon qualifies for amnesty registration, and anticipating modification of Form 1 to accommodate the new requirements.

“When you submit all that information to ATF on what will clearly be the new and improved Form 1, ATF is going to run that firearm through its 4999 checklist, and if – and trust me, most of you will be in this category – if you score four points or more on the 4999, you are going to receive a letter from ATF saying ‘your firearm does NOT qualify for amnesty registration, you OWE us a $200 tax stamp, otherwise, you can forfeit the weapon.’”

“That, my friends, is the great trap that is being set by amnesty registration,” Kirk concludes, noting that rather than being “a wild conspiracy theory,” he is “taking the language directly form ATF’s Budget Request … taking language directly form ATF’s Form 1 and … taking the criteria directly from ATF’s 4999.”

After the trap is sprung, what then? By now, all informed gun owners have seen the reports and videos of ATF showing up at people’s houses without warrants asking to see guns they have records on. Look for that to increase and look for warrants going out on people they figure they now have “probable cause” to investigate.

Remember we are dealing with enforcers of infringements who are not above entrapment, and as we see from the history of NFRTR administration, cover-ups and outright perjury. If they do show up at our doors, let’s not forget the advice of Regent Law Professor James Duane in his video presentation wherein he gives probably the most important piece of legal advice a citizen approached by law enforcement will ever hear:

“Don’t talk to the police.” (See this video on YouTube by the Regent University School of Law.)

 

About the Author

Columnist David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. In addition to being a regular featured contributor for Firearms News he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter @dcodrea and Facebook.

Categories
All About Guns Cops

Texas judge busted for having loaded gun in carry-on bag at airport By Cam Edwards

AP Photo/Michael Dwyer
According to the TSA, the number of Americans accidentally bringing their guns with them to the airport has been rising in recent years, and this year could see a record-high number of firearms seized at airport security. Already more than 4,600 firearms have been discovered at airports around the country, compared to about 6,000 over the course of 2021, and while those found with a gun in their carry-on don’t face federal criminal charges, they can have fines of up to $14,000 imposed on them for their mistake. Additionally, depending on where the goof took place, they can still have state-level charges levied against them as well.

One of the latest gun owners to find herself in this embarrassing and potentially pricey situation is Bexar County Court Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, who recently realized the hard way that she had left one of her pistols in her carry-on bag as she was going through security at the San Antonio airport on her way to a conference in Miami.

In her chambers behind County Court 13, Judge Gonzalez showed us the case she had at the checkpoint and the handgun that was in one of the pockets.

According to the police report, the handgun was “chambered with five bullets in the magazine.”

“I had a flight scheduled to go out to Miami, I had to make sure I caught the flight and it was a complete oversight on my part and I hope it serves as a lesson for people that carry to be that much more diligent in going through their things before they board a plane,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez says police allowed her wife to come pick up the gun. A San Antonio Police spokesperson said in an email that is the usual procedure.

Gonzalez was asked if she could face further repercussions.

“I think I could. I believe that the incident report has been forwarded to the district attorney’s office. I was told by the officer that TSA may follow through with a fine of some sort,” Gonzalez said.

The judge says that she owns and carries a firearm because of her work, which often puts her in contact with those accused of violent domestic abuse. Gonzalez told reporters that over the years she’s received a number of threats, likely from former defendants, and so she decided that she wanted to be able to protect herself.

I applaud her for thinking about her personal safety, but I’m sure she’s also kicking herself for not making sure she knew where her gun was before heading to the airport.

As I’ve written here previously, I’m downright paranoid when it comes to checking my bags before I travel, even though I don’t store my luggage with my guns. I guess I’m worried the Ammo Fairy is going to drop a couple of rounds in my carry-on, even though I really have no reason to be concerned.

Still, every time I fly I end up checking every pocket of my bag beforehand, just to be on the safe side. It only takes a couple of minutes but it saves me the potential headache, embarrassment, and potential fines or criminal charges that could result from being caught with a gun or ammunition while going through airport security, and I encourage all gun owners to do the same. Mistakes can happen to the best of us, even judges, but a little time and attention is all that’s need to prevent this particular misstep.

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A Victory! All About Guns California Cops

California woman shoots intruder day after getting her gun By Cam Edwards

AP Photo/ Rick Bowmer
Buying a gun in California isn’t a simple or fast process thanks to the numerous gun control measures that anti-gun politicians have put in place over the past few decades, but thankfully the state’s draconian restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms didn’t interfere with one woman’s ability to use a firearm to defend herself and her husband from a stranger who tried to come inside their home.

According to authorities, the woman in question had just picked up her pistol the day before, after waiting the 10 days required under California law between the time of purchase and when gun owners can actually take possession of their newly-bought firearm. Little did she realize that she would soon end up using the gun to fend off an attack on her husband in their own home.

A Patterson woman who had gotten a handgun just the previous day fatally shot a stranger who was grappling with her husband Saturday night at the door of their home, the Stanislaus County sheriff’s office said.

In a 911 call at 10:20 p.m., a resident of the Wilding Ranch subdivision on the city’s east edge reported that a neighbor had called and said she had just shot an intruder at her house.

When deputies arrived, they found a dead man near the home’s front entry. The residents — a 50-year-old woman and her 45-year-old husband — said that the apparently intoxicated stranger had tried to force his way into their home.

According to the sheriff’s report, as the husband fought with the intruder near the front door, his wife ran to the bedroom to get a revolver, which she said she had brought home on Friday. Returning to the entry, she fired all its rounds into the intruder.

According to authorities, 22-year old Angelo Santana tried to force entry into the home while he was “heavily intoxicated,” leading to him fighting with the 45-year old resident. Police say that, according to interviews with those who knew him, Santana had a history of alcohol abuse and would “regularly show-up unannounced trying to find friends and acquaintances of his in the same neighborhood.”

In a Facebook post, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office announced that a preliminary investigation indicates the shooting was “strictly self-defense,” and while the investigation continues the details that the sheriff has released publicly appear to back up the woman’s claim that she was acting to protect her husband and herself from a combative stranger.

The house belonged to 50-year-old Yuhui Zheng and her husband, 45-year-old Yang Luan. The husband attempted to physically restrain Santana and was involved in a significant fight near the threshold of the front-door.
Luan sustained minimal physical injuries, to include abrasions and scratches to the back, while fighting with Santana and trying to defend his home. Yuhui Zheng retrieved a revolver from the upstairs bedroom, which she had acquired only one-day prior, and in self-defense of her husband, fired all rounds into Angelo Santana.
Santana wasn’t armed, but neither Zheng nor Luan knew that at the time. All they knew for sure is that a strange man was trying to get inside their home and began attacking Luan as he tried to keep the would-be intruder at bay. I’d say that they had a reasonable fear that the stranger was trying to do them harm, but we’ll have to wait and see what the D.A. in Stanislaus County decides to do with the case.
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All About Guns Cops

Self Defense Myths Knowing the laws of the land is just as important as knowing how to shoot. by ED HEAD

Self Defense Myths

Teaching folks to defend themselves with a firearm goes way beyond the mechanics of shooting. And, while I’m not a lawyer and don’t have expertise in the details of the law in every jurisdiction, I also teach general principles of self-defense.

Sadly, some people have a poor understanding of the legal issues related to the use of deadly force or have fallen prey to myths and urban legends. Here are some of them, with advice – my opinion- on how they should be handled.

The Issue: Recently, I was told the law in a certain state allowed you to shoot anyone who had crossed the threshold into your home, with the advice if you were to shoot someone on the porch you should drag them into the house.

This is like the common misconception that arises from the idea you’re better off shooting someone in, rather than outside the home, and should rearrange the scene of the shooting to support this. The truth is, if you’re justified in defending yourself, why are you messing with the crime scene? That’s exactly the way the police will view it–a crimes scene–and any changes will cast doubt upon your innocence and destroy your credibility.

The issue: The Castle Doctrine allows me to shoot anyone in my home (or on my property).

No, you cannot. Merely being in your home or on your property does not justify responding with deadly force. There must be a deadly threat about which you can articulate the need for deadly force: He had a gun, he said he would kill me, I knew if I didn’t act I would die.

The issue: If I shoot someone, it’s best to empty the gun into them. Dead men tell no tales.

If you’re justified in using deadly force, you may do so only until you have ended the threat. Once your assailant ceases to be a threat you must stop shooting. “Finishing them off” all but assures you will land in prison and turns what may have been a legal use of self -defense into murder.

Here’s the bottom line: If you don’t know the laws where you live it’s your responsibility as an armed citizen to learn the law and act within it. Make an appointment to visit with a criminal defense attorney who can answer your questions and brief you on how self-defense matters are handled where you live. While you’re at it, you should establish a professional relationship.

As the boxing referee says, “Protect yourself at all times.” For us, that means before, during and after a deadly force encounter. You don’t want to wind up living in a cement room making new friends.

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All About Guns Cops You have to be kidding, right!?!

Couple finds fully-automatic M16s in storage cases bought online ONLY ON ABC13: The ATF’s search unfolded Monday afternoon in a Richmond-area storage facility. By Miya Shay


The building is located across from Piney Point Elementary, but it is unclear if the school has had to evacuate.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Federal authorities are trying to figure out how at least a dozen fully-automatic M16s ended up among military surplus equipment sold to a Houston couple.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) executed a search warrant in a Richmond-area storage facility on Monday afternoon. However, that only came after the couple voluntarily notified authorities of their highly-unusual find.

Last week, the couple, who run a side hustle of buying surplus lots, dividing up the products, and reselling them on eBay, received delivery of 108 storage cases sold by a government surplus website. Over the weekend, a friend helped the couple stack and store the cases. As a thank you, they gave one of the cases to the friend.

When that friend opened the case, he realized it was not empty. Inside were 12 fully-automatic M-16s, all of them still with various tags designating the military branch and name of service members who handled the weapons.

“We just purchased these cases. We never expected anything in there,” said the husband, who did not want to be identified. “Supposedly, the sender should check every single box to make sure there’s nothing dangerous or anything.”

“It’s just a case, everybody can buy it online,” the wife said.

Unsure of what to do, the couple reported the M-16s to authorities. Within hours, ATF and FBI agents seized the one open box with the 12 weapons. Shortly thereafter, the ATF obtained a search warrant for the couple’s storage unit. They spent most of Monday on location, going through the boxes.

ABC13 was the only news outlet on scene. We observed agents opening, closing, and stacking multiple gun cases.

“It’s incredible. It’s surreal,” said Greg Fremin, a one-time Houston police captain and Marine.

ABC13 reached out to Fremin, who is now a faculty member at Sam Houston State University, about how dangerous it is to have random military equipment floating around.

“It’s unbelievable to think military-grade weapons would be shipped in containers across state lines. It’s pretty shocking,” Fremin said. “One of the strictest things we have in the military is weapons accountability. So these weapons are missing somewhere from a U.S. armory, and somebody doesn’t know it. That’s the scary thing about that for the U.S. military right now.”

He continued, “For these boxes to have M16s in them and be shipped to a public destination, not only is it shocking it’s a federal crime.”

Exactly who’s legally responsible for the gross mistake is uncertain. ABC13 contacted the online website that sold the gun cases. The company has since pulled all the other cases that were also for sale offline as it conducts an internal investigation. A representative from the company told ABC13 that it directly contracts with the Department of Defense to sell surplus equipment, which would not include any weapons.

The ATF confirms it’s investigating along with the FBI but will not say how many weapons were recovered. ABC13 can confirm the number is at least a dozen, but unknown how many other boxes also contained M16s.

“We are good citizens” the wife said, adding she’s now reluctant to buy military surplus equipment and fearful to run afoul of the law.

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Cops You have to be kidding, right!?!

Stuff like this really worries me!

Scrolldrop libertarianmeme

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Art Cops Well I thought it was funny!

Dirty Harry got a new toy!

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" California Cops You have to be kidding, right!?!

Los Angeles County Creating ‘Buffer Zones,’ Demanding Gun Shops Keep Fingerprint Logs by S.H. BLANNELBERRY

 

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is moving forward this week with plans to enact various gun control measures that will chill the 2A rights of law-abiding gun owners and place an undue burden on responsible gun dealers.

Among the ordinances included in the motion authored by Supervisor Janice Hahn are:

  • A ban on the sale of .50 caliber handguns and .50 caliber ammunition
  • The creation of “buffer zones” between gun stores and “sensitive areas” (schools, daycares, parks, etc.)
  • To make all Los Angeles County property a gun-free zone
  • Require gun stores to keep a fingerprint log, submit sales reports and inventory reports in real-time to the county board, install security cameras, limit minors’ access and provide gun owners with information about the local laws.
  • Deny sales to individuals on the federal government’s no-fly list

“When I was in Congress, we responded to horrific mass shootings with little more than moments of silence and thoughts and prayers,” said Supervisor Hahn in a press release.

“I will not sit idly by when there is action that we can take to save lives,” she continued. “These gun violence prevention measures are commonsense and are under our authority at the County level to implement.”

Attorneys will be drafting up the details for each ordinance over the next three months.  Once finished, the completed drafts will come before the board for a final vote.

Hahn told Fox11LA that these “common sense gun regulations” are “just one piece of the puzzle.”

“If we move forward with implementing these “four common-sense gun regulations”, I hope others in our county will follow suit,” Hahn said.

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All About Guns Cops

Thieves Plow Car Into Gun Stores, Steal 100 Guns in Two Days by S.H. BLANNELBERRY

 

Authorities in Detroit, Michigan are currently searching for a band of thieves that stole almost 100 guns in two days.

Surveillance footage shows the suspects entering the stores by plowing a vehicle right through the front entrance.

Once inside, the masked bandits smash and grab as many guns as they possibly can.  They’re out within minutes.

Police believe there are at least 8 perps involved in the heists that targeted gun shops in Westland and Dearborn Heights, over the weekend.

Spencer Wong, who owns the gun shop in Westland, spoke to ABC 7 Detroit about the robbery.

“We even have a barricade back here because we didn’t think anyone would be willing to drive through the front,” he said, about the security measures he already had in place at his store, Armed in Michigan.

Wong said they made off handguns and long guns worth thousands of dollars.

“They’ve sure been here because they got the good stuff. They got the expensive stuff,” he said.

The thieves also hit CC Coins, Jewelry and Loan in Dearborn Heights using the same tactics.

Altogether they snatched about 100 guns, approximately 50 from each shop.

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“They don’t care. They’ll just come. It’s kind of savage. They’ll do whatever they want. They don’t care,” Wong said.

Wong’s right.  They don’t care.  They will do whatever they want.  Yet, some politicians are convinced that if we just pass more draconian gun control that it will somehow stop these savages.

Maybe it’s worth asking specifically: Would universal background checks have stopped these thieves?  What about waiting periods or expanded red flag laws or new banking codes to track gun purchases?  Would they have made a difference?

No chance.  Someone willing to drive an automobile through a storefront doesn’t give a rip about what gun laws are on the books.  This is a point that is clear as day to everyone — well, everyone except those who want to destroy the 2A.

ATF is now offering a $20,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of those involved.  Call 888-ATF-TIPS if you know something.