Saturday, October 18, 2008

Well, they were closer this time.

Usually when some talking head or columnist from the MSM blathers about "an arsenal of weapons being found by police in the home of Joe Smith, whose neighbors describe him as a moody loner", the camera then goes on to pan shakily across a bedsheet covered with grandpa's old .30-30, a couple .22 plinkers, an SKS, and a $79.99 single-barrel twelve gauge from Wally World. It always turns out that the "over a thousand rounds of ammunition" is only because Mr. Moody Loner (apparently being introverted and prickly about the neighbor's dog peeing in your rosebushes is a sure sign of a future spree killer,) picked up a couple bricks of .22 during a 2-for-1 sale at K-Mart when they were closing out their gun department ten years ago.

Rarely do I sit up and say "Okay, that is a lot of guns."

It's good to have goals. Mine is that, when they finally come after me for felony jaywalking or confuse my address with the crack house two blocks down, and in the aftermath spread all my stuff on bedsheets in the front yard, I want the kids on the intarw3bz gun boards to look at that junk-on-the-bunk display and say "Wow, that is an arsenal."

29 comments:

GeorgeH said...

20 mm Russian anti-tank rifle

Uhh, isn't that a Lahti? Hard to tell in that photo. Someone needs to take lessons from Oleg Volk.

Hunsdon said...

The weapons were seized based on a law legislators passed in the wake of the shooting death of Indianapolis police Officer Jake Laird in 2004. The law allows police to seize weapons until an owner can prove mental fitness to have them.

Oh yeah, that's just GROOVY.

Prove to us, Comrade, that you need these dangerous devices.

And the ATF plans to inventory and, POSSIBLY, destroy all of the items.

On the basis of, again, what, exactly? And why not turn it over to his daughter, if it comes to that? (Although if she invited the po-po into the house to search it, she probably ain't all hep to the seductive power of cosmoline and vintage ordnance.)

BobG said...

"In the search, officers found more than a 100 guns, including a 20 mm Russian anti-tank rifle capable of piercing through most armor, 6News' Jack Rinehart reported.

Investigators also found mortars, mortar shells, nearly 80 pounds of black powder, smoke grenades, a Thompson submachine gun, assorted rifles and shotguns, along with about 50,000 rounds of ammunition."

Next, we'll be hearing how he picked them all up at a local gun show.

Unknown said...

Probably destroy them????? I'll guarantee that the pile will be picked over by the po-po's in ATF, THEN the remaining WILL be destroyed. There is no probably about it. And I wonder how bad the po-po would freak out about the fired 75mm recoiless rifle shells at my house if they ever saw them! ha ha.

Anonymous said...

I'm so jealous. A Mortar?

It's not arsenal until you have indirect fire capability and can take on on light armour.

My hero.

Anonymous said...

Let it be a lesson to the rest of us. Trust no one and don't keep any thing beside your primary defense weapon in your home. This guy was turned in to the cops by his DAUGHTER. Three words: Off Site Cache.

Anonymous said...

How is this type of seizure any more legal than the nonsense that New Orleans has been practicing? Where is the Due Process?

Anonymous said...

Has the department budget been cut? Are they having a sale? :)

Anonymous said...

You've got to love the grammar used by the local PD:

"Anything could have went wrong."

An obvious product of the government school system.

perlhaqr said...

I'm sure the Finns will be deliriously happy to know they're part of Russia.

The Freeholder said...

You're highest aspiration is "Wow, that is an arsenal"? Come on, you have to think big.

Me, I'm shooting for the pictures on the national news, along with maps of the third-world country I was planning on taking over. After that, demonization by the prosecuters, a quick semi-show trial, and a public execution.

If I'm going out because I own more than one gun and a box of ammo that will last me for ten years, I want to go out with a real bang. :-)

the pawnbroker said...

i have a feeling that when "they" come a-no-knockin' at r. cottage, the arsenal won't be the only thing spread out on (under) sheets in the front yard.

"The law allows police to seize weapons until an owner can prove mental fitness to have them."

they better be sure to get them all, because at that point my "mental fitness" will be altered...

jtc

Anonymous said...

In defense of the daughter, she seems to have turned him in over a suicide note she found.

Still it's sad to see the loss of so much rare class 3 fodder.

Damn I want the ATR, the mortar might be fun to but I can't imagine feeding it, and if I own it I REALLY want to enjoy shooting it.

Anonymous said...

"I want the kids on the intarw3bz gun boards to look at that junk-on-the-bunk display and say 'Wow, that is an arsenal.'"

D-I-L claims I'm already there, and mentally unstable to boot. But then again, she's a liberal that thinks only the PO-leece and military should have guns anyway.

Hard to believe police in The Heartland are seizing guns based on what "Might Happen".

Sure hope the old guy has the proper forms for the Class III stuff.

Anonymous said...

I hope the guy has a really nasty lawyer...

Anonymous said...

Hmmm.

Wonder if any of the weapons were demilled. Same with some of the ammo. Didn't notice any AK-47s, M-16s, etc. in the ordinance. Did notice what appears to be a G-3 and an M-1 rifle. Not to meantion the Thompson (which may be semi-auto.) No baseplate on the mortar.

Anonymous said...

My all-time favorite "arsenal" story was about a young man's collection. The obligatory bedspread photo showed a truly breath-taking collection of various handguns, submachineguns, and automatic rifles.

The only catch? All but one of guns was an airsoft weapon. But you had to read really far down into the article to discover this little tidbit.

Anonymous said...

"The weapons were seized based on a law legislators passed in the wake of the shooting death of Indianapolis police Officer Jake Laird in 2004. The law allows police to [i]seize weapons until an owner can prove mental fitness to have them.[/]"

This is outrageous, and presents a "guilty-until-proven-not-guilty" mindset on the part of the Indiana legislature. I thought that was un-Constitutional? Prove that I'm dangerously crazy to people other than myself, THEN try to take my guns, but don't tell me I need to prove I'm sane to keep them. That's a surefire way to make sure I exhibit "anti-social behavior."

Give a man freedom and responsibility, and he'll become freely responsible. Take a man's freedom, and you'll get only irresponsibility in return.

phlegmfatale said...

Leave it to me to think in terms of textiles, but I expected you to say your goal was for them to run out of sheets to spread the stuff on.

Montie said...

Gee, upon looking over the video several times, I'm pretty sure that the "fully automatic Thompson submachinegun" is in fact a semi-auto Thompson PISTOL, with no provision for accepting a shoulder stock. In addition, Both the Lahti and the mortar are legal with the proper "destructive devise" paperwork (unless, of course, they are demilled).

Anyone elso notice that the mortar rounds were not only in various "calibers" some much too large for the depicted mortar, but they were all either blue practice rounds or demilled with holes drilled into them.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 10:08, you know he might have been mentally ill, right?

Maybe the cops are being braggarts again (watching the video, they had a bit of it), but we won't know until the investigation is complete.

Anonymous said...

If he was truly threatening to kill himself then intervention is understandable. But it should have come in the form of a seventy-two hour observation and interviewing period with a final decision at the end.

Even if he is not a danger to himself, I expect that getting those items back will probably be harder than putting the toothpaste back into the tube.

Anonymous said...

What I found interesting was the article below it, something to the effect that pistol permit applications in Indy were at an all time high. Possibly wanting to get "grandfathered" if Commisar Barry takes over?
As for arsenals, I only have 35 or 40 guns, at least 300% shy of what I need. I have a Connecticut pistol permit, which is more difficult to obtain than the clearance needed to become a cop.
That's not B.S., my kid's a narcotics detective in Hartford. Same name, google him. Real Dirty Harry stuff.
So, since I design the things for a living and have cops (multiple) in the family, I should be one of the last to have to turn them in to the Obamafying Pelosicrats.
But It would be lonely being the only arsenal in town.
My buddy Rodney builds really high end match rifles for a living. Disregarding what's in the shop on business, he has perhaps 150 to 200 classic militaries in the cellar at any given time. That doesn't count the collection of double rifles and shotguns upstairs in the safes.
Eric the Norsky has almost as many, including the world's most beautiful 1895 Mauser, which benchrests possibles all day long at a measured 880 yards. That's with 175 gr. jacketed roundnoses and G.I. iron sights. And he refuses to sell or trade it to me, even after my offering youngest daughter as a kicker. Damn.
Anyway, Eric, Rodney, Gary P., and yours truly. Four middle-aged guys, all reasonably personable persons with permits, could concievably outfit an infantry battalion. Legally. How well would that set with the ACORN folks?
But iof it doesn't break any laws, doesn't that mean that the lack of sufficient anti-arsenal laws must be rectified? Scary thought for tonight.

Anonymous said...

Now if they're going to seize weapons from people they think are mentally ill, they ought to start with street gangs, not 60 year old men. 60 year old men have been around for 60 years - they didn't get that way by being young and dumb. Like gang bangers.

Tell a disadvantaged youth "join a gang and you're guaranteed to be in prison by 21, dead by 30", and he still joins, he's crazy, so you can seize his guns. But then again, gangbangers vote Democrat, so fat chance of that happening.

John B said...

Tam.....
I've read further down in your blog. Your .45 collection is almost as big as 'My Arsenal'. Though I have run out of bed to put the guns on when I move the gun cabinet.

Anonymous said...

The law allows police to seize weapons until an owner can prove mental fitness to have them.

Because just owning one weapon makes you crazy paranoid you know.

Crucis said...

Man, have you seen the prices on a fully functional Thompson? Love to have an M1928A1 as sold in the Sear catalog. It included a gun case, cleaning kit, detachable stock and 20, 30 and 50-round magazines.

Matt G said...

"Police went to the home in the 7000 block of Lantern Road just before 10 p.m. after the daughter of a 60-year-old man found a suicide note and empty gun holster at the home."

Suicide note? Of interest.
Empty holster? Good gawd. I have a dozen or so empty holsters sitting around right now. My father has boxes of them.

Tam said...

If police searched Roseholme Cottage they could find a hundred empty holsters.

I don't know about suicide notes, but I'm sure if they dug through enough of my old diaries and scrapbooks they could find some maudlin emo poetry from high school and college days...