(image courtesy of Robb Allen)Brad_in_ma and PISSED both sent me this story:
Police: 40 guns stolen from Lowell home
Aside from spelling the name of the city wrong (It's Lowell, guys!), sounds like an unfortunate turn of events, right? Pretty much every gunnie's worst nightmare - you come home from being out to find your sanctuary violated, your gun room in disarray, and safes torn asunder (side note: We are all keeping meticulous records, right???). This gunowner made one serious mistake, though. He lived in MA:LOWEL - Police say federal and state investigators are trying to figure out who stole about 40 handguns and rifles from a Lowell home.
Police said Tuesday that officers responded to a Dublin Street home Monday afternoon after the owner reported that someone had broken into the cellar in which he stored a vault containing the guns.
Police immediately revoked the gun owner’s Massachusetts license to carry a firearm, saying the potential of the missing firearms being used on Lowell streets is disconcerting.Got that? This poor bastard was a victim - his castle was breached, his possessions stolen, and the Lowell police compounds the damage. If he had a firearm on his person, he has to surrender it. If the thieves missed other safes and guns, they're now gone, too. Because some lowlife broke into his home, he has now been stripped of all Second Amendment rights - read that again:
HE COMMITTED NO CRIME, YET THE COPS TOOK HIS GUNS AWAY.
First off, does that make any sense to anyone that the cops would revoke his permit because his house got broken into? That's like charging a rape victim with indecent exposure IMHO. This guy's home has been broken into, and rather than doing some actual police work and going after the criminals responsible, they yank his permit so they can feel like they've done something. Unreal. Secondly, this absolutely highlights the folly of "discretionary" licensing - at the chief's whim - with no crime nor disqualifying event - this citizen has lost a civil right.
Welcome to Massachusetts - the birthplace, and graveyard, of Liberty.
That is all.
19 comments:
Amazing.
In my curiosity I googled Dublin St.
Then went to street view.
(IMHO) it doesnt look like a nice area. I'm sure there must be alot more to the story.
That being said, the disconcerting part of 40 guns on the street as well as a potentially law abiding citizen being stripped of his 2A rights is scary indeed.
(link to google)
http://tiny.cc/nxdfy
That is fuctup on a whole new level right there. I had no idea my blood pressure could shoot up quite so fast.
I hope Gura goes in there and tears that nanny state a new asshole.
tweaker
Sounds like there may be more going on here than it appears at first glance.
"Police say the vault had been compromised and the weapons were missing. Most were registered to the home owner.
[...]
Investigators are also trying to determine if the gun owner broke state or federal laws."
[emphasis mine]
Assuming the paper and/or the police aren't distorting the facts to further their own anti-gun agenda (big assumption, I know), it sounds like the police may have found something during the investigation that made them suspicious of the victim.
Having said that, it's still disturbing and infuriating that a man can have his 2nd Amendment Rights completely stripped for either being the victim of a crime, or for nothing more than the merest suspicion of having committed some crime himself.
According to this report,
Guns were in a "Homemade Vault"
..and may have been used in the Grant St shooting.
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/26373998/detail.html
Jake,
There are many ways you can quite legally have a gun that is not registered to you in MA.
First of all, the state lost *all* of the registration forms to a fire in the mid 1990s. I currently have three guns in my armory that - according to the state - are not "registered" to me... BECAUSE THE STATE LOST THE RECORDS!
Anyone that has owned a gun in MA for more than ~ 15 years has "unregistered" guns.
Also, if you move into MA from out of state, you are NOT legally required to register anything you bring in with you. Now, they cannot violate the state's AWB, nor have any magazines > 10 rounds made after 1994, but you do not have to "register" them...
It is entirely possible that he owned all of those guns perfectly legally.
Jay,
I just went and got my LTC A renewed. During the initial questioning the Officer said that one of the questions that I could or could not answer was along the line of:
"What kind and how many guns do you have?"
He said that I didn't need to answer and that it would NOT affect the renewal.
When you say you have to register, don't they already have the info when you purchase the gun and jump thru the hoops at the dealer?
Just askin :)
( I did get the renewal btw.) :)
Thanks, Jay.
I didn't know my ragemeter could go to 12.
Thanks for reminding me to post the warning, wizardpc...
"There are many ways you can quite legally have a gun that is not registered to you in MA."
I thought there were, but wasn't 100% sure. My focus was more on the second part that I put in bold - it hints at something else going on, like what PISSED linked to later.
I still think it's wrong, though. There needs to be at least enough evidence to arrest and charge him with a crime before even temporary suspension of a Right, much less total revocation.
Assuming this gun owner is clean, he'd be an ideal plaintiff to take MA's "arbitrary and capricious" may-issue policy to federal court.
Him, and a buncha folks with denied or highly restricted licenses for no other reason than that the chief of police doesn't allow the hoi poloi to have Class A LTCs.
Jay, I think I speak for most of your readers in states that border yours when I say that we are building a wall. Today.
By march, the 351 towns in Massachusetts will all bear a striking resemblance to Enfield. Not the rifle, but the perfect* town in central MA....
*:as close to perfect as can be obtained in assachusetts.
Massachusetts tax dollars at work.
"Officer, somebody stole my car!"
"I'm very sorry, Ma'am...now please surrender your driver's license."
I simply could not live in a state that so easily infringes on the rights of its' citizens.
And I thought Kalifonicate was bad.
I had a truck break in and when the leo responded I was at my loading bench mounting a new scope on a Savage bencher.
She and I [cute little rookie] talked guns for an hour.
In Mass. I would expect the SWAT team.
That's bad **shakes head** That wouldn't even happen here :(
Jay,
Setting aside my usual observations that you should move and stop funding the insanity that you rant about, think about this.
If you home is broken into and a firearm is taken, the government will respond by taking your permit and every gun you own.
I don't know exactly what kind of financial hit that would be, but it seems to me from your posts that it would not be inconsequential.
And beyond the financial loss, you would no longer be a gun owner, and there would be no way to get them back.
@tierno, we already have a case in federal court with an ideal plaintiff being litigated by Alan Gura. http://comm2a.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58:hightower-v-boston&catid=6:right-to-carry-discretionary-licensing&Itemid=38
Stacey Hightower was a Boston police officer who had her LTC revoked after she left the PD.
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