Sunday, March 27, 2011

Story Follow-Up

Remember back in January when this charming story broke? A Massachusetts man comes home to find that his house has been broken into and his gun collection has been stolen. He calls the police, who promptly show up and perform acts of police work revoke his permit for being so careless as to let his house get broken into.

Well, brad_in_ma sends me this link to tell us that the parties responsible for the break-in have been caught.

LOWELL -- Two men have been indicted in connection with the theft of approximately 40 guns reported stolen from a residence on Dublin Street in Lowell's Acre neighborhood on Jan. 3, according to Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.

George Rodriquez, 31, of Lowell was indicted by a Middlesex County Grand Jury on charges of breaking and entering in the nighttime to commit a felony, breaking into a depository, larceny of a firearm, possession of a firearm (7 counts), possession of a large capacity feeding device, trafficking in firearms, trafficking of a large capacity feeding device, possession of a firearm, subsequent offense (7 counts), and being an armed career criminal (7 counts), according to a press release from Leone's office issued Thursday afternoon.

Miguel Rivera-Otero, 20, of Lowell, was indicted on charges of breaking and entering in the nighttime to commit a felony, larceny of a firearm, possession of a firearm (4 counts), possession of a large capacity feeding device, trafficking in firearms, trafficking of a large capacity feeding device.

Now, this is all well and good - it'll be interesting to see how many crimes they're actually sentenced for versus how many are plea-bargained away, mind you - it sounds like they might be facing some serious time (I mean, if they were in another state that took dealing with violent criminals seriously). This is exactly what we on the pro-rights side have been saying - enforce the existing laws rather than pass new laws to combat this sort of gun crime. Put these SOBs in jail for 40 years - and keep them there - and it sends a clear message to the criminal community that breaking into someone's home to steal their firearms will get you put away for the rest of your life.

Of course, I wonder if the homeowner has gotten his permit back yet - never mind his firearms.

That is all.

4 comments:

dr mac said...

It makes my head ache.

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

I'd love to see Alan Gura take on the homeowner's case, and take it all the way to the Supremes - it looks like a beautiful case for doing away with "may issue" licensing.

Anonymous said...

I'm suspecting that the victim in all this will never see either his gfuns or his priviledge card again.
The card because they can and the guns because someone else in the department wants them.
emdfl

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

Yeah. I bet his only chance is to challenge the Constitutionality of the "discretionary" licensing, and I assue that'll have to go at least to the federal circuit court, if not all the way to SCOTUS, before getting overturned.